Tammy Andreycak, the former director of accounting for collapsed bottler Le-Nature Inc. pled guilty Thursday to bank and wire fraud, conspiracy and aiding in the preparation of false income tax returns in connection with an alleged massive scheme of deception, Bankruptcy Law360 reported on Friday. Prosecutors said that Andreycak allegedly created false accounting records at the direction of Le-Nature’s CEO Gregory J. Podlucky, who has not been charged. Andreycak and Podlucky allegedly had a computer only accessible to them to generate periodic general ledgers that became the basis for the company’s balance sheets and income statements, all of which “grossly overstated” the gross receipts and assets of the company, court documents said.

The Bank of England and the British government are considering actions that would mirror steps taken by the U.S. Federal Reserve to restore liquidity to the money markets by taking over mortgage-backed assets from banks, the New York Times reported today. Details are still being decided for the plan, which would offer government-backed bonds in exchange for securities backed by British mortgages. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the Exchequer, have come under increasing pressure to act, as banks’ continued reluctance to lend adds to woes in the British housing and consumer markets. Banks are unwilling to lend even to each other because they do not trust the value of their mortgage-backed assets at a time of falling property prices in Britain.

 A month after suffering the biggest embarrassment in its 20-year history, the Carlyle Group closed late last week on a $1.35 billion fund to buy distressed assets, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The new fund, Carlyle Strategic Partners II, will do everything from investing in publicly traded bonds and bank loans to purchasing ailing companies outright. It is the first Carlyle vehicle to close since the collapse of Carlyle Capital Corp., a fund also managed by Carlyle Group.

Asarco LLC is seeking court approval to enter into a $5 million financing deal under its chapter 11 restructuring, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The copper-mining company said that it needs the financing because its $75 million bankruptcy loan expired in December, according to court documents filed Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Corpus Christi, Texas.