[Bernie Madoff being held up by hanging out with  top salesmen friends Robert Jaffe and Walter Noel]

“He may be dead…but he’s the life of the party!” so says the trailer of the latest tragicomedy Weekend at Bernie’s starring Bernie Madoff and his  social salesmen social buddies  Walter Noel and Robert Jaffe.  It’s a touching story of friends whose loyalty and devotion to each other ultimately lands the trio in a heap of trouble.

Twenty years ago Bernie had an idea to throw a ponzi scheme party and he summoned Noel and Jaffe to create the ultimate investor list guest list.  Over two decades they wrangled people through the exclusive velvet rope that guarded Madoff’s threshold.  With a 2 and 20% $20 cover charge, the three lived like kings.  But what started out as a good time soon spiraled out of control.  More»

No that is not Chris Crocker’s Britney Spears-inspired shrill. It’s me, and I really think people need to lay off these girls. As you are most likely aware at this point, the “Fabulous” Noel sisters, having danced in the social spotlight for the last several years, were thrown into the national spotlight when their father, Walter Noel, and his company Fairfield Greenwich Group (FGG) sent over 7 billion dollars to money heaven via its investment in Bernard Madoff. Making matters worse, four of the five sisters husbands worked at FGG and the family’s recent success was chronicled in several glossy publications over the last few years.

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Cityfile acquired the statements of the Walter and Monica Noel Family Foundation for 2006 which showed $169,000 in donations. Compared to the many millions of dollars in fees he made funneling his investors money into Bernard Madoff, it seems relatively small.  And given the large overhead costs of running a foundation it almost seems not really worth the effort.  Moreover, many of the “donations” look to be in the amount of a ticket or “social toll” to a charity gala, essentially a write off for a night on the town. Opinions aside, their giving could have ramped up a lot in ‘07 and ‘08, we simply don’t know.  But what other “charitable” interests or hobbies did they have other than “giving” to Bernie Madoff? More»

Nine West founder Jerome and his wife Anne Fisher (pictured left via NYSD) are a charitable couple.  In August of 2008 they gave 50 million dollars to UPenn for a new biomedical research building.  And in December of 2008 they gave $150 million dollars to money heaven via Bernard Madoff.  They were happy about the first gift, not so happy about the second.  The New York Post recently wrote that Fisher had some heated words for one of Madoff’s salesman Bob Jaffe.

According to some reports, Nine West founder Jerome Fisher, who is said to have lost $150 million as a result of Madoff’s alleged misdeeds, exchanged heated words with Jaffe at a black-tie birthday party Saturday.

But as a tipster notes, it wasn’t Jerome Fisher, rather his son Marc Fisher who lives in Greenwich and is the founder of Marc Fisher Footwear.  And it wasn’t Jaffe with whom he exchanged words and shoves, but rather Walter Noel.  So how did these two come into such close proximity with each other? More»

The Noel Family Photographed by Bruce Weber in 2002 for Vanity Fair’s “Golden in Greenwich” article.  Photo via NYMag

When the news broke that Walter Noel of Greenwich was Bernard Madoff’s top salesman, losing some 7.5 Billion dollars of investors money in the now infamous ponzi scheme while his firm earned some $500 million in fees, society writers all over the world began frothing at the mouth.  The story simply has Vanity Fair written all over it. And this is of course no coincidence.  Mother goose Monica Noel has been manufacturing PR for the family for the last 2 decades.  Since starting out with glorious Christmas cards and lesser known glossies, their self-styled Yupi porn reached the pages of Vanity Fair in 2002.

And now a tipster writes that the same hand that feeds is looking, well to be fed.

Graydon Carter is literally licking his chops as if he were about to eat a plate of $65 macaroni and cheese with truffles at the Wavery Inn.  Vanity Fair has effectively given the Noel family an ultimatum.  “Work with us, and you will at least have control over your side of the story.  Don’t and what will be written will be whatever is available in the public domain…:

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Generally speaking, one of the biggest issues for people hit with the recession is recalibrating their spending habits and tightening their belts so-to-speak.  Sure most people’s holdings and 401k’s have plunged, but that’s easy to ignore, just don’t look at it.  But what we are undoubtedly forced to confront is that Prada bag we want and can’t get, or that new flat screen tv, or in some more “social” cases that gala event we want to attend.  Yes, resetting one’s social calendar is in many times necessary, in some just prudent.

Enter Walter Noel, who recently came under fire when his company Fairfield Greenwich Group lost $7.5 billion of his investors money in their faux fund that invested exclusively with Bernard Madoff. It’s unclear yet where Noel stands with respect to repercussions both legally and financially, but socially he seems to be bouncing back at least for the moment.  A tipster writes: More»