Remember Andrés Piedrahita, the Colombian-born employee/son-in-law of Walter Noel? The guy who traveled the globe in search of wealthy investors, who he convinced to invest in Fairfield Greenwich, the hedge fund that lost an estimated $7 billion to Bernie Madoff? Although you might think he'd be hiding in a cave these days, he's actually having a lovely summer. Because according to Vicky Ward, Piedrahita just took possession of a brand new, custom-built $30 million yacht: "He is now cruising the Adriatic with wife Corina Noel and their children. I am told he has plans to cruise around the Dalmatian coast and Corfu." [HuffPo]

Fairfield Greenwich, the hedge fund that directed billions to Bernie Madoff, was handed over to another fund last month called Sciens Capital. Sciens didn't pay anything for it (not that anyone would pay anything for Walter Noel's heaping pile of crap). And now it seems the change in ownership is ensuring that some of Noel's cronies continue to receive paychecks. A tipster with a copy of a Sciens Powerpoint presentation tells Dealbreaker that the fund "seems to be basically a bunch of FGG guys," the transfer was a "smoke and mirrors show for the investors, and "nothing has changed." In that case, champagne by the pool in Mustique in 15 minutes! Be there! [Dealbreaker]

Walter Noel, the hedge fund manager who basically funneled his clients' money straight to Bernie Madoff, is on the hook for $3.2 billion in funny money his firm withdrew from Madoff before the fraud unraveled.

Walter Noel's messy legal situation just got messier. Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee responsible for liquidating Bernie Madoff's investment firm and recouping funds for Madoff's victims, just filed a $3.2 billion lawsuit against Noel's firm, Fairfield Greenwich Group. So while Noel may get a chance to play golf in the Hamptons this summer, he's clearly going to have to learn how to swing a club and talk to his lawyer on his cellphone at the same time. [NYT]

• AIG's Ed Liddy now says the company will need three to five years to carry out its restructuring plan and repay taxpayer bailout money. [NYT]
• Hedge funds actually saw returns rise more than three percent in April. [DB]
• Walter Noel's Fairfield Greenwich hedge fund is no more. The disgraced firm is handing over its remaining $2.5 billion to Sciens Capital. [NYP]
• The rich get richer: As financial firms raise capital and pay back TARP money, it's Goldman, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan that are profiting. [Fortune]

The Noel family was once the toast of Greenwich, Connecticut. Dad ran a hedge fund. Mom and the daughters were social queens. Now, they've reportedly been kicked out of their country club. An American tragedy:

Massachusetts securities regulators charged Walter Noel's Fairfield Greenwich Group with fraud this morning. The complaint isn't short on potentially incriminating detail. In one 2005 email, for example, Bernie Madoff informs a Fairfield exec that "the less you know about how we execute, and so on and so forth, the better you are." [NYT, WSJ]

A member of the "golden" Noel family is finally speaking out. Andrés Piedrahita, the party-loving Colombian-born son-in-law/employee of Walter Noel, tells the Wall Street Journal that since Fairfield Greenwich lost more than $7 billion to Bernie Madoff, "life has changed a lot." But that's not because he did anything wrong! He was just as shocked by the news as everyone else, which is why he remains blissfully free of any regret: "I and look at myself in the morning, and I'm very proud of what I've done, and so are my partners." Isn't that comforting to hear? [WSJ]

Walter Noel and the Fairfield Greenwich Group have been sued yet again. The full complaint is after the jump.

Looks like times are getting tough for Walter Noel and Jeffrey Tucker, the founders of Fairfield Greenwich Group, the hedge fund that allegedly lost $7.5 billion to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. The Post reports that the pair has put its share in a private jet up for sale, the Tuckers are now selling off their horse farm in upstate New York, and poor Melanie Tucker has had to cut back on bridge habit. No word yet on when Marisa Noel Brown and her husband plan to put their townhouse up for sale. [NYP]

• Bank of America went ahead with the purchase of Merrill Lynch—even after having last-minute doubts—because Washington pushed it to do so. [WSJ]
• Yesterday's testimony by Harry Markopolos before a House subcommittee looking into the Madoff affair was eye-opening, to say the least. [NYT, Reuters]
• One damning accusation by Markopolos: Walter Noel's Fairfield Greenwich Group went on a "three-year auditing shopping spree." [Fortune]
• Another Markopolos revelation: The Wall Street Journal missed numerous chances to break the Madoff story open. [Clusterstock]
• Reaction to Obama's plan to cap Wall Street pay—and opinions as to whether it could even work or not—has been all over the map. [WSJ, BN, NYT]
• Erin Callan took a leave from Credit Suisse because she's been summoned to testify before a grand jury about the collapse of Lehman Brothers. [NYP]
• The number of new claims for jobless benefits reached its highest level since the 1982 recession last week. [WSJ]