The Bernie Madoff Saga Rolls on
Bernie Madoff has been sequestered in his apartment since his bail conditions were modified on Friday, but that's hardly put a damper on the media frenzy. Over the weekend, the Post was kind enough to tally the funds lost by members of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue (or the "Temple of Doom," as the Post describes it), a $2 billion sum that includes a $200 million investment by Ira Rennert, an amount that is about twice what he spent on his house in the Hamptons. The Times offered up an extremely detailed look at Madoff's rise over the years, and revealed that Walter Noel, who runs the Fairfield Greenwich Group, collected more than $500 million in fees from the $7.5 billion he steered into Madoff's hands, a good portion of whuch was rustled up thanks to the efforts of his globetrotting sons-in-law.
Today's Wall Street Journal takes a long look at Bernie's niece, Shana Madoff, who worked as a lawyer at the firm and is married to Eric Swanson, a former SEC lawyer, both of whom will be central to the SEC's investigation into why the agency failed to spot warning signs about Bernie Madoff's scheme sooner.
One somewhat more amusing revelation over the weekend is that Bernie's son, Andrew, was served with divorce papers by his wife Deborah on the very same day Bernie was arrested, especially since the Post has photos of the divorcing couple on a "holiday shopping spree" in Soho yesterday. A lawyer for Andrew Madoff says the split is "very amicable," but we're guessing the situation won't be described as such when angry investors suing the Madoffs hear how Andrew turned over all his assets to his soon-to-be ex-wife as as part of a divorce settlement.