UPDATE 1-Croatian seamstress in insider trading ring found

* Order that Sonja Anticevic pay $5.72 mln affirmed

* Zagreb lawyer says defendant innocent, on low income

* U.S. SEC lawyer says further payment unlikely (Recasts first paragraph; adds lawyer comments, second dateline and byline)

By Jonathan Stempel and Igor Ilic

NEW YORK/ZAGREB, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The retired Croatian seamstress who disappeared after being implicated in a U.S. insider trading ring has been located, maintains her innocence, and is unlikely to ever pay a $5.72 million penalty imposed by a federal judge.

Sonja Anticevic, believed to be in her late 60s, was nonetheless again ordered to pay the penalty, after missing a deadline to tell the court she had hired a new lawyer to replace the lawyer who withdrew from the case.

Prosecutors in 2005 accused Anticevic of holding two brokerage accounts in her name that her nephew, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) broker David Pajcin, used for trades that generated about $6.7 million of illegal profits.

U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood in November imposed the $5.72 million penalty after the defendant ignored four complaints and an order to find a new lawyer by Aug. 31, 2009.

In an order made public late Monday, Wood said that on Jan. 27, she received a letter on Anticevic's behalf from Ante Madunic, a Zagreb lawyer who said his client was "innocent of all charges" and should not be punished.

Yet Wood said the letter, while dated last Aug. 31, was not mailed until Dec. 12 -- two weeks after she imposed the penalty.

"The submission, therefore, is not timely," Wood wrote. "The court will not alter the judgment."

Madunic on Tuesday said Anticevic still lives in Croatia, but lives on a low income. He added that "international legal norms have not been respected" in the case.

"Sonja Anticevic could not give her testimony according to the international legal practice, and I cannot see how under such circumstances the ruling of a New York court could have consequences in Croatia," Madunic said.

Scott Black, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer handling the case, said $2.8 million that had been frozen in a U.S. account for Anticevic has already been applied to the judgment. "Realistically, given her financial condition, it is unlikely" there will be further recovery, he added.

Investigators said the insider trading ring traded on tips about pending mergers and a grand jury probe involving drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N).

Tippers included a former Merrill Lynch & Co employee and a New Jersey postal worker who served on the grand jury. Both pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme, as did Pajcin and former Goldman colleague Eugene Plotkin.

The case is SEC v. Anticevic et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 05-6991. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Igor Ilic in Zagreb; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Tim Dobbyn)