Former controller for the convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff’s investment firm was sentenced but given no prison time.

Enrica Cotellessa-Pitz pleaded guilty back in 2011 when she was charged with conspiracy along with other charges. She was one of the key witnesses at the criminal trial for the Madoff fraud, according to Reuters.

As a result of that trial, five of her former colleagues were convicted. But on the contrary, the ex-controller was praised by the U.S. judge for being so helpful to the authorities that were investigating Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

The District Judge, Laura Taylor Swain, imposed her sentence in federal court in New York, citing her “extraordinary, extensive cooperation” and genuine remorse. Cotellessa-Pitz expressed that she would always regret taking orders and accepting “off” explanations from Madoff.

“I, like so many others, did not question the authority of Bernard Madoff,” she said. “There was only one way to do things, and that was Bernie’s way.”

Cotellessa-Pitz began her work for Madoff in 1978 while attending college. From this stemmed her position as controller for the investment firm which held through until it’s collapse in 2008 due to the fraud that was revealed.

She assisted the former back-office director in hiding that Madoff was transferring client money from the firm’s fraudulent advisory business in order to pump up its trading unit.

She also aided in the creation of false documents that were provided to investigators from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2005. And in addition, she also directly helped Madoff prepare fake backdated records to support his fraudulent tax returns.

Still, there was no solid evidence that Cotellessa-Pitz knew of the Ponzi scheme. Instead, prosecutors said that her actions helped conceal the scheme from the outside world.

Including the five former colleagues of hers that were convicted, a total of fifteen defendants were convicted in connection to the Madoff case. Still to come are more scheduled sentencing for defendants that cooperated with the government in this case, but it seems that no one else will face criminal charges.