Walter and Monica Noel have multimillion-dollar homes in Southampton, Palm Beach and Mustique, but few friends, according to Vanity Fair
Post | 03/02/2009 5:45 pm
Vanity fair: Family That Peddled Madoff Fund Now Social Pariahs
Walter and Monica Noel have multimillion-dollar homes in Southampton, Palm Beach and Mustique, but few friends, according to Vanity Fair
By The Staff at wowOwow.com
Image via NY Post
Dashed family fortunes are common enough these days, but one Greenwich, CT, family lost more than its towering wealth. Walter and Monica Noel, whose extended, well-connected family were profiled by Vanity Fair in 2002, are being snubbed by the snobby social circles they once occupied, according to a follow-up article in the magazine’s April edition.
Why the cold shoulder? The Noels ran Fairfield Greenwich Group, an unwitting feeder fund for Bernie Madoff’s $60 billion Ponzi scheme that they peddled to wealthy friends and neighbors at lavish events and exclusive clubs across the country. Those friends are now understandably bitter.
Southampton neighbors like Tom Wolfe, Ezra Zilkha and Chuck Scarborough found the nouveau riche clan loud and annoying ...
At holiday parties following Madoff’s arrest in December — including a soiree hosted by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani at the Metropolitan Club — guests shunned the couple and seemed genuinely annoyed by their presence, according to media reports.
It doesn’t help that Southampton neighbors like Tom Wolfe, Ezra Zilkha and Chuck Scarborough found the nouveau riche clan loud and annoying long before the scandal broke, reports Vanity Fair.
The family, which is getting trashed in the press, has since scaled back its social calendar, choosing instead to lay low. Walter Noel, the 78-year-old family patriarch, is also facing several lawsuits over his company’s dealings with Madoff.
For their part, the Noels insist they’re victims of the disgraced money manager, not accomplices: "What this monster has done to so many people including us is known in the bible as an abomination," Andrés Piedrahita, the Noel’s son-in-law, wrote in a note to family and friends canceling an extravagant party for his 50th birthday in Majorca last month.
True, but was he also worried no one would show up?
