Tonight:
10°c
When books are written about Wall Street's collapse — and boy are they being written, with Liar's Poker author Michael Lewis the latest to sign up — the Noel family of Greenwich may merit a volume of their own.
Their downfall, courtesy of Bernard Madoff, has been the source of much gloating here in Manhattan. To recap, Walter Noel ran Fairfield Greenwich, a $14 billion fund that invested half its cash with Madoff. Walter's five daughters married and set off around the world. Their hubbies attracted investors in Fairfield with promises of access to the genius Madoff, while the daughters posed for glossy magazines, with their smiling sprogs and perfect homes.
Every Christmas, the family sent cards showing the whole mob looking like Ralph Lauren models. In 2006, it listed the grandchildren by nationality and hobby.
The four Spanish loved “flamenco, paella, horses, tennis and Mallorcan summers”; the Italians enjoyed “exciting Milan, beautiful Pianello weekends, alpine skiing”; the Brits and their “Notting Hill life, soccer and rugby in Hyde Park”; the Americans, just back from Brazil with “Rio beaches, coconuts, futebol”, now had “snow, ice hockey”; the Manhattanites, “Soho loft life, swinging from the rafters, playtime on the roof”.
Yesterday, the New York Post noted the Noels had scrapped their usual Christmas trip to their Mustique villa, to the delight of other residents. It seems they would roar round the tranquil island, disturbing tennis matches, mobbing the beach. This year they rented their house out. After losing out heavily with Bernie, they need the readies. F Scott Fitzgerald or Edith Wharton would have loved it.
* Ebay is awash with Madoff paraphernalia, branded corporate doodads from the good years: a fleece vest, golf hat, humidor, even a Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities Emergency Response Kit, with public transport maps, water and an emergency blanket. All stuff the Noels might need.
* As the Manhattan property death slide continues, Pamela Liebman, president of Corcoran, one of the city's largest estate agents, observes: “Brokers are making friends with lawyers and doctors and all those people who were left behind in the heyday of Wall Street, three months ago.” Ah yes, the people with real jobs.
