(Bloomberg) ? John Houldsworth, an executive at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.?s General Re unit, agreed to plead guilty to a federal criminal charge of helping American International Group Inc. distort its finances.

Houldsworth, who has been put on leave at General Re?s Dublin office, reached the agreement with the Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, his lawyer, Larry Byrne, said yesterday. He will plead to one count of conspiring with others to misstate AIG?s books.

Houldsworth is the first to face a criminal charge in a federal and state probe of accounting abuses at AIG, which corrected a reinsurance transaction with General Re when it restated five years of financial statements last month. The plea may increase pressure on other individuals involved in the deal, which triggered the ouster of AIG chairman Maurice (Hank) Greenberg and led investigators to question Berkshire chairman Warren Buffett about the extent of his knowledge of the deal.

?John is cooperating fully with the US DOJ and SEC and accepts full responsibility for his role in these matters,? said Byrne, a partner at White & Case LLP in New York. ?He deeply regrets his actions.?

Greenberg, who stepped down as chairman and CEO of the world?s largest insurer in March, instigated the transaction with a phone call to General Re?s then CEO Ronald Ferguson, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said in a May 26 civil suit against AIG and Greenberg, 80.

Houldsworth, who was CEO of General Re?s Cologne Re unit in Dublin when the transaction was done, created false documents to disguise its true nature, Spitzer said in last month?s complaint. He declined to comment today when reached by phone at his home in Ireland. Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said a plea hearing is scheduled for June 9.

?They would not offer him a sweetheart deal if he wasn?t in a position to put larger fish on the frying pan,? said Jacob Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor who now practices law in Rockville, Maryland. Howard Opinsky, a spokesman for Greenberg?s attorneys, didn?t immediately return a phone call. Last month he said Greenberg would dispute Spitzer?s allegations.

The SEC, which filed its complaint against Houldsworth yesterday in US District Court in New York, accused him of aiding and abetting securities fraud at AIG. The SEC hasn?t sued AIG in this matter.

?This case is not about the violation of technical accounting rules,? the SEC said in the complaint. ?It involves the deliberate or extremely reckless efforts by senior corporate officers? of General Re to help ?senior management? of AIG structure transactions ?solely for the unlawful purpose of achieving a specific, and false, accounting effect.?

The transaction was improper because it didn?t transfer enough risk to qualify for the favourable insurance accounting AIG needed to boost its reserves, the company said last week. The restatement cut net income by $3.9 billion since 2000 for an array of accounting flaws. The General Re transaction had negligible impact on net income.

Authorities are probing a type of reinsurance that can be abused to mask losses or manipulate financial statements. Investigators for Spitzer, the SEC and the Justice Department interviewed Buffett, 74, in April, and Spitzer has since called him a ?cooperative witness?. Buffett said in a March statement that he didn?t know details of the General Re policy with AIG or its improper intent.

At least two other clients of General Re, the largest US reinsurer, are the subject of inquiries that span from Australia to Ireland. Ferguson?s attorney, Douglas Koff at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP, declined to comment. General Re CEO Joseph Brandon didn?t return a phone call seeking comment.