Walt, however, managed to die with his personal fortune intact
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December 30, 2024:
Bernie Madoff victims get final $131M payout from compensation fund, bringing total to a whopping $4.3B: feds
That’s good news for Bernie’s chumps and suckers, of course, but what about our homegrown boy, Walter Noel, the criminal who served as Madoff’s local feeder, funneling WASP money (a group Bernie, a Jew, couldn’t gain access to) into the Madoff centrifugal cream separation machine, the Harvard boy who put the “Rogue” into Rogues Hill — surely he didn’t suffer, did he? Because he was such a nice man and had such a lovely family!* Not to worry: You’ll be relieved to know that managed to die this spring in his Mustique retreat, surrounded by his doting children and their ill-gotten loot.
Walter Noel, who ran biggest feeder fund into Madoff, dies at 93
Noel founded what would become Fairfield Greenwich Group in 1983 … and made his first $1.5 million “investment “[with Madoff] later that year.
By the time Madoff was arrested in December 2008 for running history’s biggest Ponzi scheme, the firm had about $7 billion invested with him or roughly half the firm’s total assets.
[All of it, in fact; despite Fairfield’s claim that they entrusted clients’ funds to a handful of carefully-selected, vetted funds, every penny scammed from Walt’s gand was handed over directly to Madoff to steal from it as he would - less the 20% slice to Walter, naturally. — ED]
Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison after pleading guilty to his crimes. He died in prison in 2021 at age 82.
Madoff charged no fees to Fairfield Greenwich and other so-called feeder funds, meaning that those firms kept all the money they charged clients on what would eventually be proven to be fictitious returns. In Fairfield Greenwich’s case, that was 20% of any profit, and in later years a 1% management fee on assets.
With the Madoff investment spinning off a return of at least 10% annually, Fairfield Greenwich made more than $1 billion in fees, according to a July 2010 complaint filed against Fairfield Greenwich’s entities and executives by Irving Picard, the trustee assigned to recoup money for investors. Noel personally received $114 million in partnership distributions between 2002 and 2008, the court document said, a sum that did not include salary or bonuses.
Picard alleged that the executives of Fairfield Greenwich knew or should have known that Madoff was operating a Ponzi scheme and said their relationship was a “de facto partnership.” Picard’s litigation is ongoing. No criminal charges have ever been brought against these parties.
… Noel, his Brazilian-born wife, Monica, and their five daughters led an increasingly lavish lifestyle from their base in leafy Greenwich, Connecticut. As Fairfield Greenwich assets ballooned, so did the number of vacation homes. In addition to the estate in Mustique and their mansion in Greenwich, they had places in New York City, Palm Beach and Southampton.
Four of his five daughters wed men who later worked for Fairfield Greenwich. The daughters and their children were photographed by Bruce Weber for a 2002 Vanity Fair piece entitled "Golden in Greenwich" that described Noel’s offspring as the anti-Hiltons.
Corina, the eldest, married Colombian-born Andres Piedrahita, who led the European and Latin American businesses, working out of London and Madrid. Lisina, the second oldest, wed Yanko Della Schiava, based in Lugano, Switzerland. He was responsible for selling Fairfield’s offshore funds in Southern Europe.
The fourth oldest, Alix, married Philip Toub, son of Swiss shipping magnate Said Toub. He marketed the group’s funds in Brazil and the Middle East. Marisa, the youngest, married Matthew Brown, who worked for the firm in New York. Ariane, the middle daughter, married a private equity investor who was not involved in the family business.
Executive recruiter Russell S. Reynolds, a longtime friend of the Noels, told Vanity Fair that he saw Walter and Monica at the Round Hill Club in Greenwich the day after Madoff’s arrest. “Walter was shaking he was so upset,” Reynolds told the magazine.
And here’s another take:
Bernie’s Biggest Sucker/Unindicted Co-conspirator Croaks
April 18 2024:
Unlike many of his old friend’s victims, Walter Noel lived to a ripe old age without knowing want.
Walter Noel lost a lot when Bernie Madoff got caught. As head of one of the oldest and the largest feeder fund into history’s biggest known Ponzi scheme, he lost about $7.5 billion of his clients’ assets. He lost a reliable source of income, since he paid his old buddy Bern no fees but charged lavish ones himself—some $1 billion worth over 20 years. He lost a chunk of his fortune, as well, although he never lost the $114 million the Madoff trustee has spent 15 years trying to recoup. He lost his share of a private jet. As four of his sons-in-law worked for his Fairfield Greenwich Group, he lost them their jobs and any real hope of obtaining new ones commensurate with their lifestyles. He lost his professional standing (but not his social standing, since he never had any).
He didn’t have much respect among his neighbors on Mustique, either, according to the man who developed the exclusive private Caribbean island. Apparently, however, the Mustique Company couldn’t do what the Round Hill Club did and simply throw him out. And so Noel was able to live out his final years amidst the celebrity, splendor and luxury that Ponzi paid for before joining his old partner, whose own beachside accommodations were distinctly more modest, in hell.
Walter Noel, who ran the the largest fund to invest with Bernie Madoff and made more than $1 billion in resulting client fees for his firm, has died. He was 93.
He died on Dec. 15 at Yemanja, his family’s property on Mustique, a private Caribbean island, according to his death certificate.
Ah, the memories.
*The Noel sisters of Greenwich, Connecticut, are turning tabloid-fodder sister acts (that is, Nicky and Paris Hilton) on their heads. In lieu of dancing on tables, the five Noel women have made a name for themselves by shoring up the virtues of a nearly extinct aristocracy. They're well educated and well married, and they're raising a pack of wellbehaved, multi-lingual children while keeping their string-bikini figures intact.
"Let me tell you, those Noel girls are perfect," says Laura McCloy, a socialite of a certain age who gestures with a clinking glass of iced tea toward the tall, attractive sisters. Mrs. McCloy, who is dressed all in pool-green Michael Kors, smiles at Corina, 38, Lisina, 37, Ariane, 35, and Alix, 34. The scene is a lawn in Greenwich, part of the property owned by retired Chase Manhattan Bank vice-chairman Robert Douglass and his wife, Linda. The couple is hosting a party for the youngest Noel sister, Marisa, 25, who is to marry 33-year-old investment manager Matt Brown on October 26.
