Madoff investors face off in Palm Beach
Tags: Bernie Madoff, Bob Jaffe, Jerome Fisher, Palm Beach
| Tuesday 16 December 2008 11:01 am
Beyond the financial fallouts in Palm Beach of the Bernie Madoff scandal, the very social fabric of The Island may find itself altered forever.
Formerly rich families will be uprooted.
Former friends are at each other’s throats.
While Realtors are lining up to grab the expected sales of mansions whose owners lost the millions they invested with the disgraced Wall Street big, one scene at Mar-a-Lago Saturday night illustrates the tension.
Several eyewitnesses at the 60th birthday party for carpet king John Stark tell me that two of the major players in this scandal came face-to-face.
It wasn’t pleasant.
On one side was Bob Jaffe. The philanthropist has been criticized here for directing big-deal investors to Madoff Investment Securities – the firm that, federal authorities said, lost $2 billion of its clients money in what amounted to a Ponzi scheme. Jaffe admitted to being paid for his referrals.
Jaffe, who is not under investigation, and his wife, Ellen, apparently made the mistake of showing up at Stark’s birthday barbecue. Several Madoff clients, too, were among the 70-plus guests. One had mortgaged two homes to maximize his investment. Another put in $20 million from a child’s trust fund.
“Why Bob would show his face after what happened,” said one guest, “is beyond me.”
So, one of the bigger losers in the Madoff collapse, Nine West shoes founder Jerome Fisher, verbalized what others were thinking. Fisher, according to published reports, may have lost $150 million.
He reportedly told Jaffe: “You’ve got a lot of nerve showing up here!”
It went downhill from there.
“They were about to go at it,” said one spywitness. “There was some pushing and yelling. I’d never seen anything like this at Mar-a-Lago. Jerome is a tough cookie. He made some really threatening comments to Bob, as he well should have. It was a wild scene.”
With Mar-a-Lago owner Donald Trump standing nearby, several Stark well-wishers stepped in and separated the men.
Neither Fisher, already a victim of the $200 million-collapse of the KL Group here in 2007, nor Jaffe left. They just avoided one another.
Trump told Page2Live: “It was a great party, but it was one like none other. There were a lot of unhappy campers there.”
Neither Jaffe nor Fisher returned calls. A Jaffe family spokeswoman, Carey O’Donnell said Jaffe denies the incident occurred.
“I don’t know where you’re getting this from, but it categorically didn’t happen,” O’Donnell said.
Madoff, 70, was arrested last week in what could become the biggest swindle in American history. Madoff used fresh money from some investors to cover the losses of others. He promised outrageously high interest rates, some as high as 15 percent.
There was a lot of pushing and shoving. That’s about it!! No swings or punches. They’ve lost enough already, any contact would have caused more $$ repairing all the plastic surgery. Like watching geese fight on a lake. Trump’s people didn’t make a move. He knew nothing was gonna happen….
I thought rich people just slapped each other with their glove. How ’bout a 10-pace duel, using shook up champagne instead of pistols. The cork oughta be about all the pain they can bear.
Pampered rich guys actually thowing a punch? No way. They just got their nails done for the party.
It’s easy to feel sympathy for anyone taken by a crook, but the above is a perfect example of Palm Beach greed. And I’m not just talking about Madoff. Why anyone would risk their multi-million dollar homes and a 20-million trust fund earmarked for a young relative just for a few extra bucks to keep up with the Joneses is pathetic.
With all that wealth, what a vacuous place.
That’s a lot of money. Expect shrinkage.
I been trying to get someone to listen and hear me maybe someone will pick up on my thought- A way out of this mess is for the Goverment to FORCE credit card companies to bring down their inerest rate to 0% for the next two years bring monthly payments down to 1/4 of what they are now and last forgive the next 10 month payments- companies would still get their money back and this would give the comsumer extra money to spend I feel it would be a real shot in the arm to the economy
It could not happen to a better set of crooks. Get rich and richer…it is about time these people with their heads held high and nose turned up,looking down on others. I am happy it is one of their own crook that scam them.
http://www.ionajuman.com
I am not making that payment now anyhow, and I am still broke.
How about some jobs,,,,,
530,000 people lost jobs in November alone.
The people ivested with Matoff were greedy and still are.
No sympathy here.
Investing a childs trust in high risk……shameful.
Maybe the Saudis will buy up the estates. They gotta be sick of Dubai by now.
Not only poor/stupid investors a bunch of pu$$y to boot, first I didn’t feel sorry for you now I have no respect for you at all.
How much money a person has doesn’t determine the greed in his heart. In the poorest villages in Africa the worst problem is greed. How can people here be so judgemental of someone just because they have money? How mean can you get? Sounds like pure jealousy to me. Really, anyone with a computer and internet access is among the top 1% of the worlds wealthiest. In that case we’d all be condemned and guilty. Yeah, I know some extra wealthy people who look down their noses, but I know poor people who think they are so humble because they have little. They are really proud of how humble they think they are. Why should a rich person feel guilty just because they have money? That’s rediculous. People here would heap guilt and condemnation on them just for that. See lifetime dot org for real freedom from all condemnation.
First of all, lets not hate rich people because they are rich. Bob Jaffe admitted he received money for referring investors to Madoff. That is not an illegal practice and is an offer made by may businesses as a way to get customers to recommend their business. Bob Jaffe is now disgraced among his friends and business associates, he ruined in his world of influence right along with others taken by madoff.
I have only ever invested in real estate. No matter how careful one is, banks can fail, schemes can undo you. Real Estate always is something tangible that you can expect to go up and down…but it remains tagible and you can touch it. Be prepared for a spike in Palm Beach property values as hedge funds are sold for fear of another ponzi scheme lurking in the weeds, and investors flock to buy the top Real Estate.
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Ruth:
Nobody is saying that how much money one has determines how greedy they are. Money does not equal greed, and greed does not equal money. BUT when a net worth of 80-million just isn’t enough for somebody that they chose to gamble away two homes or a trust fund to eek out a few more bucks.. that, my friend, is greed.
I just hope the beautiful women who follow these jerks will now realize that us not so rich are a better choice to party with.
I hope that at the point in my life when I reach the pinnacle of success and wealth Donald Trump is NOT there.
Otherwise, why bother?
Fisher lost money in KL Group and Maddoff? LOL! KL Group some goofy korean day traders. Ha ha. This guy is a real mark. he is a real sap. Bob jaffee is a promoter the biggest ponzi scheme in history. A folks they all thought Bernie could front run through his market making firm aka as cheating. Sadly for them the real secret is Bernie is running a ponzi scheme.
Dan - beautiful women? This corwd get yentas from Queens with bad facelifts. The good looking women on PB are chasing the WASPs with money.
What a bunch of riff raff. This scum would never be allowed on Jupiter Island - thank God.
Former NASDAQ Chief Madoff’s chief selling point was that he allegedly had insider information on stock trades allowing the sweet 12% return, year after year.
The investors were greedy, spoiled, and totally seduced by Madoff.
Then the democrat/Obama recession hit. Madoff was a gigantic democrat party supporter, raising questions if he bought off oversight, the way Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac paid to call off investigations. There will a lot less money to spend in the future on the democrat party, which has destroyed so many lives.
[...] Madoff investors face off in Palm Beach [Jose Lambiet] Published Tuesday, December 16, 2008 5:18 [...]
Dumde or The Dumb or Edmund
Edmund is typically not a Catholic name. Edmund is a name from yesteryear. Someone would have to be born in the early 1930’s to be named Edmund. I don’t doubt that Edmund is anti-simetic. Edmund is probably Eddie, and was hurt in this scandal and is lashing out at Madoff becasue he himself was burned. Eddy- hate is not the answer nor is feeling sorry for yourself. Don’t run from your religion but embrace it! What you lost in wealth you can gain in love and kindness. Forgivin you shall be.
Mr. Neil D You as a Jewish man should not be self hating. Love thy enemy and thy friend. Do not label. Do not hate. You will be forgivin for your sins and slander.
There are two emotions connected with the accumulation of money. FEAR and GREED. The constant fear that you will lose your money and the greed thinking that you can get a lot more, cheap.
I love it when I come onto this site and just read the hate spewed towards anyone with money. Before many of you post, you should take the time and actually read what the scandal is all about. Just because someone is rich doesn’t mean they deserve to lose their money. “Greed” is the last word anyone would use when describing those who invested with Madoff.
Here’s what almost all of you missed: investing with Madoff was considered one of the safest investments on Wall Street. The guy had a stellar reputation, and was even looked at by SEC regulators and passed with a clean bill of health. His scam was that good.
Those that invested with him were getting returns of 10-15% a year. Is that being greedy? You could have earned a better return investing in real estate from 2000-2005 than investing with Madoff. It was the ’safety’ that these investors were seeking.
If you had that kind of wealth, you would have done the EXACT same thing. Park it somewhere where you thought it would be safe and earn you safe and consistent returns. Remember, these are millionaires and billionaires, and they got that way by being wise with their money. They were duped into the fraud of the century. Nothign they could have foreseen, and nothing even the SEC caught onto.
Grow up and stop bashing people just because they are wealthy and you somehow feel they ‘deserve’ it. How about the families that their entire life savings just evaporated 2 weeks before Christmas? How about the charities? The foundations? Were they ‘greedy’?
Get a clue.
How does a case of fraud draw so much hate. I am guessing some people need any little cause to express thier hate. While any loss is bad why can’t we show compassion just for our fellow man. I wish people would use this platform to address the issue and not spread hate for one another
I am disgusted by the anti Jewish comments. How many so called Christians have ripped their own people off like some of those t.v preachers? This has nothing to do with a person religion. EVERYONE is capable of immoral behavior.
Hey Joey
How about we all just give you 10 million dollars so everything is fine with your life
Such a shame to see this garbage unfolding at a birthday party. Now I know why the Everglades Club is ‘exclusive’ in more ways that one.
Well Ms. Carey O’Donnell, if it did not happen, it surely should have !
did jaffe disclose to his “friends” that he was getting paid “a nickle a chicken”? was this “nickle a chicken” arrangement above board legal? is jaffe a bad guy?
some folks have no sense of humor.
easy come … easy go….
their will be quite a few folks who will never ever admit that they too got their clocks cleaned, thus the real scammed amount will never truly be accurate.
People should stop confusing hate with disgust. Someone who has tens or hundreds of millions and who is at the end of their life and is STILL trying to get as much as they can is just disgusting. A man who is 74 years old wasn’t happy with a hundred and fifty million, he wanted more? That’s just as disgusting as a glutton who weighs 500 pounds sitting at a buffet shoveling food into his mouth. It is not hateful to notice that the majority of people guilty of this in all the stories coming out are jews. Almost all the raiders of wall st. have been jews. From Fuld to Madoff to Dreier etc. etc… A group that at most makes up only 3% of the population seems to have wormed their way into our financial system and are bringing it down. Sorry for noticing, what, you think it isn’t just so GLARINGLY OBVIOUS. Now, this same group of people want people outside their group to compensate them for their losses. This same group of people is using their members and friends in the government to make illegal rulings giving rich people money from those outsiders. IT”S DISGUSTING AND A GREAT INJUSTICE!
Evanryan you ask for compassion but I ask you that these people and yourself show some humility and nobility. These people were never humble about themselves and their money, a humble person doesn’t go for the bigtime. Now that they’ve lost they are using their connections to pick our pockets and YOU ASK FOR COMPASSION?! what are you CRAZY?! I say let them drop dead in a packing crate. They’re DISGUSTING! So some of them gambled everything and lost, so take it like a man like the rest of have to. Bunch of shmegegees! Get a job if you have to, bag groceries or something. Wallmart could use a few more “greeters” you know. Oh sorry, y’all are just too good for that, I forgot your excrement doesn’t stink like ours, gee, you deserve my income more than I do because you are one of the beautiful people, gee, yes, your fiends on the bench are right to make you whole again at all of our expense because you are such royalty. Yeah, get another facelift, put another gaudy fountain and paste some more ugly gaudy columns on your disgusting mansion in boca.
They say you judge a person by the company they keep. What does that make all of Madoff’s investors, fiends of friends of friends of madaoff’s-it means they are, more than likely, the same type of shmegegee as he is. They just thought he being a jew would only screw non jews, like they probably did. THIS is the real shocker for them and it can be read between the lines loud and clear and that’s why this has become a “jewish” thing. One of their own wasn’t supposed to do that to THEM! He could do it to people outside their group and that was fine with them but the real scandal here is he did it to them. Now they are scrambling to find someone in their group to rule from the bench and make them whole at the expense of those outside their group. Believe me, I’ve mixed with this crowd, this is EXACTLY how it is.
Screw all of you bloated, jello brained morons. No one gives a rat’s ass about your losses. Stop the whining and grow up.
easy come, easy go. get over it.
It’s a little difficult to work up a whole lot of sympathy for a group of people who would never want me to be seen in their presence. Just shop in their businesses and then get the f… out.
These are people who couldn’t even stomach a Starbucks in their zip code. Oh the humanity of the commoner setting foot there. Officer, Officer, look a commoner. Remove him now. lol
On the other hand a lot of money has been lost. I’m also sure that many decent people have been hurt too. And there has to be a negative trickle down effect on our whole economy out of this. If just in economic confidence.
Maybe, just maybe, a whole bunch of people, not only Palm Beachers btw, will realize that money isn’t everything.
osama bin madoff
madoff - terrorist tool
What a group of angry, jealous, bigoted proles are emerging as a result of this story.
What next, a guillotine to execute anyone driving a nicer car than you have?
You guys even make crap up to justify your hate…no where have I read that any of the victims are looking for a ‘bailout’ from the US government, only restitution from the criminal himself. One poster wants them to learn that ‘money isn’t everything’…lol. Obviously it means alot to those writing these ugly posts, otherwise they wouldn’t be so obsessed with how much these people had, or have lost. Get over it
Too bad there are people more successful than you…thems the breaks, folks. Go get some self esteem and work on achieving your own success rather than rooting for other people to fail and gloating at their misfortune.
Amazing what ugly and ignorant things some people will say. I know the people in this article. They are quite rich. They are also extraordinarily philanthropic, far more than most Christians or other groups — and I am not Jewish, so I have no axe to grind. They have given away huge fortunes (some of it made through investments with Madoff, but most of it made through lives spent building successful American companies). I mean huge: hundreds of millions of dollars. But that apparently doesn’t interest the spiteful.
I suppose we could get rid of all of these “bloated, jello brained morons”. Of course, we would probably have to close most of the arts companies, museums, colleges, health care institutions, etc. since they will have few donations to support them.
“This scum would never be allowed on Jupiter Island” … “Now I know why the Everglades Club is ‘exclusive’ in more ways than one.” Very nice touch, very classy statements. Completely stupid and ignorant. Or perhaps you really believe that none of us high-class WASPs has ever chased a dollar: God just gave it all to us. What tripe.
Do you jealous idiots realize how much money these people who’ve lost a great deal have donated to charity? Mr. Fisher just donated 50M to a new medical facility at Penn. Mr. and Mrs. Shapiro have donated millions and millions to hospitals. This isn’t all about big houses and fancy cars. It’s about doing good for others.
Word of mouth in the black community says that flagler swindled blacks off of Palm Beach to come to a party in W. Palm Beach and burnt all of their homes down because he realized how much the land was really worth. That’s how palm beach was acquired.
What goes around comes around.
At least not RETAIL: JUST IN : Paradise Island, BS 19 December PRIORITY ALERT :
Kerzner’s ATLANTIS just announced a HOLIDAY MAD- ODDS BONANZA, for all bonafide victims of Bernie MADOFF’s scheme, who can get a 25% rack discount OFF all rooms, gratutities, incidentals and food-beverage charges. Those guest VICTIMS staying at the COVE or Royal Towers receive a SPECIAL 25% discount OFF all Casino Markers, but no credit. The special MARKERS cannot be cashed and must be wagered, but carry a GOLDEN PYRAMID emblem for easier identification and good luck. The promo- names :” MAD-ODDS” - will begin SUNDAY DECEMBER 21, in honor of the first day of Hanukkah and will last until March 10, 2009, the PURIM FESTIVITIES. (pending government approval).
Considering that you people didn’t want Black or Hispanic folks moving into your private EXCLUSIVE world, joining your EXCLUSIVE country club, attending your snobbish social events (some were welcome as long as they left your city limits by sundown) it is just hilarious that you now come to your ABYSS to find that you are no better than the people who clean your toilets. Did you ever stop to think that Bernie Madoff is “JUST PASSING” for Jewish or white. Look closer, he may have an even bigger surprise in store for you. His family history may reveal some deep seated hate for you. It has to be hate, afterall, love does not treat you like this. Anyway, you are the joke and we are laughing. HaHaHa. Let’s do it again, this is so much fun.
At least the cleaners are left with their dignity. Read the Bible “the LOVE of money is the root of evil”. By the way, I’m hiring. Need a job?
It is unfortunate AND HOPEFULLY PEOPLE LEARN FROM ALL THIS. Enjoy=ing life is eternal. Be grateful and be happy. We are humans and we all make mistakes.
Jerome Fisher, not exactly a choir boy himself…..those who knew him at Nine West may actually have a smile on their face…..what goes around comes around and imo, Jack got what he deserved….pop a few more zanax and pour yourself a double……lol……
As the line from Balzac goes: Behind every great fortune lies a great crime. Madoff and the investors were all criminals. I would hate to see either the investors or Madoff’s bunch get compensated for anything.
Jerome Fisher got just what he deserved…karma is a wonderful thing…it will always come back to bite you on the ass at the least expected time. Tell us Jerome how Nine West somehow “forgot” to pay import duty of tens of millions of dollars. And your wife cheating and screwing all those workmen out of their fair labor when you built that monster ugly house in Palm Beach…”the cottage” you call it.