The former controller for imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff blamed him for directing her to trick regulators and the Internal Revenue Service as she pleaded guilty in New York to conspiracy and other charges.

Enrica Cotellessa-Pitz entered the plea in federal court in Manhattan on Monday.

She told a judge that she wanted investors to know she was “terribly sorry.” She says she wanted them to know she was fully cooperating and that she did not know Madoff and others were stealing money from investors.

She says she helped fake the company’s records to fool the Securities and Exchange Commission and others from 1999 through December 2008.

Madoff is serving a 150-year prison term after admitting a fraud that cheated thousands of people out of billions of dollars.