Legal wrangling yesterday prevented the much-delayed sentencing of an accountant who stole almost $2 million from the Bermuda Government.

Harrison Isaac Jr. admitted in January that he looted the money from a Bank of New York (BONY) account in the biggest fraud against the Government in history.

Isaac, who worked as a management accountant in the Accountant General?s department, had sole access to the BONY account set up by the Government to pay vendors in US dollars.

The 35-year-old Bermudian, formerly of Crawl Point Lane West, Hamilton Parish, is being dealt with in New York City as the crime was committed there.

According to the charges, he caused $1,899,888 to be wire transferred from the account to various bank accounts in the US and Bermuda between May, 2003 and February, 2004.

He was arrested in a Police swoop at Bermuda airport in April, 2004 and found with an outbound ticket to Atlanta. He was subsequently extradited to the US in January, 2005.

Isaac was set to be sentenced by United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain last month, but a last-minute dispute over the wording of his original plea delayed proceedings.

The defendant entered a fresh guilty plea to a total of 15 fraud charges after further argument between US Government lawyers and his attorney yesterday. Isaac also recognised a requirement to forfeit the proceeds of his crime. The judge ordered that Isaac appear before her once again at Manhattan Federal Court on August 25 for sentencing. Prosecutors have calculated that he faces between 51 and 63 months behind bars.

An American national, 33-year-old Teketa Thompkins, is alleged to have been a co-conspirator in the fraud. She maintains her innocence and is to go on trial later this year.