New York - Bernard Madoff's accountant was arrested and charged with turning a blind eye to the Wall Street scammer by not carrying out required audits that might have detected the estimated $65-billion Ponzi scheme.

David G. Friehling, 49, of New City, surrendered to federal agents in Manhattan to face charges of securities fraud, aiding and abetting investment adviser fraud and four counts of filing false audit reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said a spokesman for the FBI.

Friehling, who operated out an office building in Rockland County, is the first person to be charged in the scandal following Madoff's guilty plea last week to running the scam for more than 20 years. Friehling, whose arrest reportedly took place the day after his father-in-law and former business partner, Jeremy Horowitz, died of natural causes, is free on $2.5-million bail.

The other shoe just dropped. The government is going after the "enablers"-- the lawyers and accountants in the Ponzi schemes. It's similar to the way accounting firm Arthur Anderson was a target in the Enron scandal.