Charles K. Ponzi, no! Times Online reports that Corina Noel, the eldest daughter of Fairfled Greenwich founder Walter Noel, and her husband, FFG partner Andrés Piedrahita, may have canceled their annual Christmas trip to Mustique. Apparently friends (Spanish billionaire Alberto Cortina, former Asprey owner Lawrence Stroll, EIM founder Arki Busson, etc) have been trying desperately to find out if everything’s going to business as usual this year, but no one will give them an answer! Should they make plans alternative to the traditional meet up on Boxing Day in Barbados, fly to Mustique by private jet, eat “turkey in the sunshine at Yemanja, the Noel family holiday home, and enjoy views that are reputed to be the best on the island” or what? Andrés and Corina have reportedly gone MIA, “refusing to answer calls to their Belgravia townhouse or their home in Madrid.” I’m going to go on record saying, not delusionally but in the spirit of Christmas hope, that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. The couple may very well be busy orchestrating an even grander surprise the likes of which will be revealed to us post haste; soon we’ll all laugh about questioning their commitment to throwing a lavish party as Greenwich burns in the background, while we max and relax on the island. Because honestly? There is no other acceptable alternative. Let me remind you what we’d be giving up:
Why do I keep thinking “Twit of the Year”?
I’m kind of enjoying the thought of the Noels having no Noel this year. Corina being, of course, the First (born) Noel.
For Monica and Walter Noel, Danbury Federal Correctional Institution will soon provide a great mix of friends and a sexy global design style of black and white striped overalls
Vivian Smith-Smythe-Smith – Has an O-level in kennel hygiene
Can count up to 4
Simon Zinc-Trumpet-Harris – Married to a very attractive table lamp
Nigel Incubator-Jones – Best friend is a tree
Stockbroker in his spare time
Gervaise Brook-Hampster – Used as a waste-paper basket by his father
Oliver St. John-Mollusc – Said to be this year’s outstanding twit.
His father was a Cabinet Minister, and his mother won the Derby.
You would think – given that Walter Noel has been seen out and about on at least 2 occasions since this happened – that Andres and Corina could at least show their faces. Makes you look guilty to disappear.
@3
Georgia Federal Correctional Institution would be more appropriate.
I dont know these people, or care about them. And clearly they are incompetent when it comes to due diligence. But I think the world is taking a little too much pleasure in watching this rich Greenwich family suffer. Dont get me wrong. If they knew Madoff was a scam, and raised the money, then I hope they burn in hell. But if they just sucked at their jobs, then I think we are all piling on a little too much. My guess is that most of the family (wife, daughters, etc) are innocent bystanders. We shouldnt hate them because they are rich and have yoga arms.
@7
yes we should. next?
@7 – sure, blame the men for everything. bitch.
@7- actually, if you read the article, corina, helped bring in investor money and her husband was a partner. so fuck off. we hate them because their frauds. i dont give a fuck about their arms.
@7
I believe one or more of the daughters were (are) Associates. Like Made-Offs wife, Noels wife (the one that lives in a cottage) is just as culpable or even a prime mover. Apparently she has no idea who Made-Off is. Remember this line:
Baldrick, deny everything!
@7: FGG tried to sell twice – in 2004, and again earlier this year. They had numerous interested entities. All the potential buyers, in doing due diligence, recoiled when they saw how much of AUM was with Madoff and even more so when FGG couldn’t explain the strategy and Madoff wouldn’t allow an interview.
Top that off with: in 2004, buyers ran away because 92% of AUM was with Madoff. 2008, all of a sudden they get RIEF, Icahn, etc. etc. so they can appear “diversified”. They try again to sell, still no dice because of the Madoff exposure.
Now,lump in a family of dad and 4 sons-in-law (and daughters who worked there too) all lapping at the trough of people who have lost everything. They are not innocent. They were willfully ignorant or criminally negligent.
@7
Go fuck yourself
I heard they’re too busy applying for a bank charter and then they’ll have their good buddy Hank Paulson give ‘em some TARP.
7 here…….
a lot of dbags on the site today. So, 10……you know for a fact that Corina knew that Madoff was a scam artist? No, you dont. The only thing you know is that you are an angry little man. Just bringing in investors makes you guilty of nothing. The only way she is culpable is if she had knowledge of the scam, and still brought in investors. That is information that neither your pea brain, nor mine has access to at this point. So settle down.
@15:
“The only way she is culpable is if she had knowledge of the scam, and still brought in investors.”
You are also culpable for failing to do the due diligence you claim to do for your clients. You are culpable for charging 1 and 20 for doing NOTHING to protect your clients.
@5- you are a fucking idiot. leave.
@16
Nicely done. I guess the truth hurts.
7 again……
The only way you guys deserve to be this angry is if you were Fairfield Greenwich investors. If you are, then you are idiots and failures yourselves. If you are not FG investors, then you are just angry haters looking for rich people to blame for your lameness. Get a hobby.
Madoff had his way with Corina – right in the old poop chute
7 The world is taking pleasure, despite the fact that it looks like they were conned just like many others, because of the way the Noels flaunted their wealth. They promoted the idea of their own perfection: beautiful homes, attractive women, great wealth and success. The world is now happy to see it all crumble, that they are not in fact more perfect than the rest of us. If they were decent people, we would be more sympathetic.
@7, @15, @19
Go fuck yourself
7 claims to not know or care but he sure does and won’t go away. Cliff, is that you?
7 Its not anger, is schaedenfreud (sp?), which is pleasure at the misfortune of others. Which appears warranted here (see 21)
7, 15 and 19 here.
I am fucking myself right now, and it is really good. You guys were right. I should have been doing this all morning instead of reading DB. Redtube is awesome.
@14 – Wouldn’t need a bank charter if they bought CDOs.
Hedge funds gain access to $200bn Fed aid
By Krishna Guha in Washington
December 20, 2008 6:01:44 AM
Hedge funds will be allowed to borrow from the Federal Reserve for the first time under a landmark $200bn programme intended to support consumer credit.
The Fed said on Friday it would offer low-cost three-year funding to any US company investing in securitised consumer loans under the Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). This includes hedge funds, which have never been able to borrow from the US central bank before, although the Fed may not permit hedge funds to use offshore vehicles to conduct the transactions.
The asset-backed securities to be funded under the programme are pools of credit card receivables, automobile loans and student loans.
The idea is to increase the supply of these loans and reduce borrowing rates by ensuring that the companies that make the loans can sell them on to investors who have guaranteed access to low-cost funding from the Fed.
The TALF is a key plank of the unorthodox strategy set out by the Fed last week as it cut interest rates virtually to zero. Washington insiders expect the programme will be dramatically expanded next year with further capital support from Treasury once the Obama administration takes office.
A senior official in the outgoing Bush administration told the Financial Times it could also be broadened to include new commercial and residential mortgage-backed securities.
The Fed thinks risk premiums or “spreads” for consumer loans are much higher than would be justified by likely default rates, even assuming a nasty recession.
It attributes this to a lack of buying interest in the secondary market where the loans are sold on to investors. By making loans to these investors on attractive terms it aims to increase market liquidity.
Making the scheme open to all US companies is a radical departure for the Fed, which normally supports financial market liquidity indirectly by ensuring banks have adequate liquidity to make loans to other investors.
However, the liquidity the Fed is providing to banks is not flowing through to financial markets, because banks are balance-sheet constrained and risk-averse. So it is channelling funds directly to investors.
The scheme is not designed specifically for hedge funds and a wide range of financial institutions are likely to participate.
Nonetheless, Fed officials hope that hedge funds will be among those investors that take advantage of the low-cost finance to drive down spreads.
The loans will be secured only against the securities and not the borrower. However, the Fed will lend slightly less than the value of the securities pledged as collateral. The Treasury has committed $20bn to cover potential losses.
Since the credit crisis erupted, hedge funds have complained that they cannot get the leverage they need to arbitrage away excessive spreads and meet high hurdle rates of return.
“Demand is there for leverage but not supply,” said Sylvan Chackman, head of global equity financing at Merrill Lynch.
In effect, the Fed will now take on the role of prime broker – the lead bank that lends to a hedge fund – for specific assets.
Additional reporting by Henny Sender in New York
26 Very well put.
26…..
7 here. You make good points. I agree that they went out of their way to rub their perfection in people’s faces. You have convinced me. Fuck the Noels.
“A Bailout Christmas”
Christmas Eve in the Workhouse
It was Christmas night in the workhouse
And the paupers was having their dinners.
And the preacher he called from the top of the hall–
“Get down on your knees, you sinners.
And them poor paupers knelt in that cheerless room
On their benches hard and wooden.
And the preacher called in a voice of doom–
“Bring on the Christmas puddin.”
“Put down your heads,” says he with a leer,
“Cause I want you all to think
Of the sins of the flesh that has brung us here,
Tobacco and women and drink.”
“And I’m telling youse now and I’m telling youse good.
” And his voice took a dangerous edge.
“No one gets to ate the puddin
Till everyone takes the pledge.”
And a chill of doom ran round the room.
You could cut the air with a knife
As each man searched in the depths of his soul
For the sins of his wasted life.
And then them paupers rose as one
And said as bold as brass.
“You can keep your Christmas puddin and stick it ….
Can we get the pitchforks out now?
@1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27 & 28
Happy Festivus!
x-mas card from Andres & Cori, fresh from Kenia http://www.semana.com/noticias-economia/encrucijada-andres/118983.aspx
wonder where the Noels will have the airing of the grievances and the feats of strength???
@34: can anyone translate?
They took the Safari pic in the recent trip to Kenia, and passing it to the friends during the x-mas.
The article is from a weekly magazine from Colombia, relating the story of Andres since high school up until his relation with WN and family
@ 36: They took the Safari pic in the recent trip to Kenia, and passing it to the friends during the x-mas.
The article is from a weekly magazine from Colombia, relating the story of Andres since high school up until his relation with WN and family
@34/@37: Does it “blame” Andres or does it indicate that the Noels/Madoff tricked him?
At this Christmas Season, let us not forget important words from a very wise man:
“It is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into the kingdom of God”
they basically explain how he was a dumb rich kid whose parents were from the upper echelons of Bogota society. The money comes from cotton trading. He was charming, had ambition but was not the most focused student. With daddy’s money, went to school in Boston and even participated in the semester-at-sea program.
Looks like he put a good chunk of his own money in the Madoff scheme.
He is obviously well-connected (friends with Botin, Santander’s CEO) in Madrid and has a house in Mallorca, where the Royal family spends its summers…
Ok, I know enough rich Latin kids to realise that he was nothing special.
So typical pijo….
@32
Belle Haven?
MarshallStack: you’re from Greenwich?
@42,
you are truly giving us food for thought. Sad to say but by personal experience,emerging markets wealthy people are not usually into charity.
Anyway, thanks for sharing 42…
@39
At the end of the article is paints Andres (Corina’s husband) and his father in law as victims. It even hints that they might be planning to sue the SEC. SO it’s definitely a PR piece planted by Andres.
But it has a lot of interesting biographical info.
47..I stopped reading at that part…it was so ridiculous
@45- you don’t have to be from greenwich to know belle haven (as it was the site of the paul tudor jones light display discussed yesterday), just like you dont have to be from Beverly Hills to know Sherman Oaks.
@40 – Remember also the words of another wise man:
” ‘C’ is for ‘Cookie’ – that’s good enough for me!”
@47/48: if it isn’t a hassle, I would love to read a translation of the biographical stuff and the Madoff stuff. This is what we don’t get here in NY papers. Basically, the only Spanish I know is from Dora the Explorer. Past telling Tico “Arriba” and “Abajo”, I’m lost.
Slumming it in Greenwich 2008….
If you want to know what God thinks about money, look at who he gives it to.
google search the URL and click [Translate this page]
@7 let me lay this out for you real clear.
FG took $500 MM to place money with a total fraud. The reason investors used FG was for due diligence. The reason Noel used the investors was for cash.
He is a fraud as a fiduciary and lost $7.5 Billion.
Dirtbags like this should be pilloried. And you want to know why? Because they aren’t going to feel a shred of guilt about this. They are going to use their ill gotten to higher an army of lawyers to preserve their well publicized paradise.
Now, people are reluctant to give money to charities etc because they do not trust fiduciaries and money managers to do their jobs.
To people like you it is ok to send somebody up for 20 years for selling some drugs but the wealthy elite get the kid glove treatment. Forget that – state prison for these sleeze bags.
@45
Not anymore.
Still visit friends up there and could sort of guess.
Enough of that.
Merry Christmas.
55 Some observations. Not sure FGG is a fiduciary in the legal sense. Therefore not sure that they’ve broken any laws.
@42
FFG’s website lists 40 charaties they give to. Its with much difficulty, but I’d imagine its possible that perhaps the Noel family gives alot through FFG, maybe?
FGG/Noels should roast. 4 months ago FGG sent a phalanx of Euro douches wrapped in tourbillon watches and super 150 wool to shame me into investing with Madoff. They could barely stand to be in the room with me but would have been happy to take my money. I don’t have the patience to recount the conversation but believe me, in light of all of this, it was absurd.
26, very well put.
Pls post an address or paypal acct for us to return the favor with presents or $.
Happy Holidays
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.semana.com%2Fnoticias-economia%2Fencrucijada-andres%2F118983.aspx&sl=es&tl=en&history_state0=
@58: perhaps. More likely it is to take a tax deduction at the corporate level. My old boss used to do that.
And since when is “100 women in Hedge funds” an important charity?
Most of these charities sound more like the ones that have big benefits that have lots of other well-heeled donors.
Mostly, it seems the Noels took pictures of themselves in areas either on safari or in a sarong rather than giving out water/food. JMO
58 – FG has a fiduciary responsability to its investors. This is true for any money management organization. They had a legal responsability to prudently invest their clients money and due diligence which they CLEARLY did not.
57 – FG has a fiduciary responsability to its investors. This is true for any money management organization. They had a legal responsability to prudently invest their clients money and due diligence which they CLEARLY did not.
63 Not true. Maybe if the assets were in a qualified pension plan, which operates under DOL regulations which enforce a standard of prudence on a fiduciary. But not when the role is simply that of an investment advisor. Its the same as a broker advising, presumably on the basis of diligent research, that you buy GM at $12 and it quickly goes to $2 Not his fault.
Fairfield Greenwich Group, Walter Noel’s hedge-fund firm that had $7.5 billion invested with Bernard Madoff, was sued by investors for allegedly failing to protect their assets.
Fairfield Greenwich Group founding partners Noel, Andres Piedrahita and Jeffrey Tucker are accused of breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and unjust enrichment
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=athXyvizTMBs&refer=home
66 Suing is different than collecting.
65 – read post 66
BREACH of Fiduciary Duty
68 Let me repeat: sure they sued for breach of fiduciary duty, but it remains to be seen if it sticks. Mainly because the fiduciary duty of an investment advisor is murky.
so belle haven isn’t just a pizza place?
http://www.mustique-island.com/the_villa_collection/villa_61.php
Fuck these assholes. They will burn with the Bernie.
I love how the daughters were systimatically married off to men that would be most advantageous for their bucket shop feeder fund……lovely.
I bet that guy who took down 34 of the 5 daughters is in a bar somewhere laughing his head off with his boys, telling mad story about it.
These people should just have all of their money taken away from them. Thats better than jail, they wouldnt survive a day in the real world. Best way to punish a rich person is to make them a poor person
17
chimp
17
chimp
And now, for the feats of strength!
the Noels are only part of the story. follow the money trail. there were other, earlier worse villains involved
http://mehtafiscal.wordpress.com/category/madoff/
the Noels are only part of the story. follow the money trail. there were other, earlier worse villains involved
http://mehtafiscal.wordpress.com/category/madoff/
The first of many…Presented without comment.
http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-30-is-available!-Global-systemic-crisis-New-tipping-point-in-March-2009-When-the-world-becomes-aware-that-this_a2567.html
Bess..FFG deserves the recent bad publicity but I think you’re letting Tremont and Cynthia Nicoll, its Chief Investment Officer, getting off scott free. Dig up their due diligence process and stuff about them and their risk management process. After all they lost billions with Maddoff too… spread the digging to the others too. We know enough about FFG now. We want to know about Tremont and the other feeder funds too… Come on let’s dig up some real dirt on the others too..
they were all acredited investors. A bailout will be more criminal than the crime itself.
they were all acredited investors. A bailout will be more criminal than the crime itself.
the list of the Noel’s glamour properties is just amazing, you guessed it – Hamptons, Palm Beach, Park Ave, with shady deep pocketed relatives like former arms dealer alex haegler based in Rio de Janeiro (he is related to Walter Noel’s wife) Alex Haegler’s daughter Bettina Haegler is a now disgraced Brazilian sociliate (the braindead little whore peddles over 1B in hedge funds she dosnt understand?) the list of international rogues connected to this scam reads like a Bond script. it will be sorry end for the Noels. The five Noel hedge fund whores should be gang raped unless Mommy and Daddy make the Sentry investors whole. they can kiss ALL their assets goodbye. even the swiss bankers wont take their stolen $$$ anymore!
To back up a bit, the word on Madoff was that he was frontrunning his BD clients. So, if FGG and Tremont went ahead and sold that fund to their clients anyway, then they are going to be pretty much screwed. This is the biggest criminal enterprise in history! Just wait, the Feds, and not the SEC, but the FBI will blow this wide open.They are just waiting for Jan 21 to do it.
I know that the pitch FGG gave potential investors was pretty arrogant and not very deep on substance. You bought it or you didn’t and they didn’t give a rats ass if you understood what made-off was doing or not.
Since made-off was thought to be perpetrating a minor offense, frontrunning, and turned out to be a major crime, ponzi, the facilitators of the scheme, FGG, Tremont etc. are going to be hit hard in a criminal action.
BTW, why the hell would Noel want to sell that cash cow? He had made-off, the best fund on the planet for feeder structure, Ichan, Simons and more! He had the army of daughters and son-inlaws to take over and pay him out themselves? Guess why? He knew all along this was a fucking Ponzi scheme, or at least he knew that for 5 years when he started pitching the company for sale. Think about it, people just don’t up and sell a business that generates $500M in fees a year for no good reason! And at the height of its growth curve. I could understand if they didn’t have any kids, but this is a family business… kind of like made-offs was!
@81..Maybe FFG wanted to sell itself because they’re fed up with dealing with high net worth individuals. If you ever had to hold these high net worth investors’ hands, you’d understand that after a while you’d want to get off the merry-go-round. They probably thought they made enough, now let’s live off of the hundreds of millions and live the high lives in Mustique, Palm Beach, Zurich, London etc..and not have to put up with the constant bitching from their pampered clients…But enough on FFG..we know FFG is light weight..Let’s hear from anyone on why Tremont, with it’s supposedly professional staff, messed up on its due diligence of Maddoff. They boasted on their website that they have all these fancy people with all these years and years of risk management and yet they gave Maddoff billions and billions. Why doesn’t anyone dig up dirt on them? Let’s hear something on Cynthia Nicoll, Tremont’s Chief Investment Officer.
I’m starting a fund, anyone have any cash left ?
these parasites have less class than p diddy or pump daddy or whatever the f*ck his name is.
disgusting.
payback is a bitch, bitches. it is truly a bitch.
@81 here. Tremont is the business plan that Noel had. Schluman was a good investor and had a great business. Then at age 60something, he sells to Mass Mutual. Then he “retires” this year just before the Made-off implosion. those dum b f**ks at the insurance company had no clue what tremont was doing. by the time the business sold, it was too late.
My basic premise is that Made-off ran this as a ponzi scheme from day one! He built his business originally with HNW clients and more importantly, family foundations. The statutory payout by the foundation was met by made-off through the ponzi model. all he had to do was provide steady 3% cash flow and make up the rest. then came the FOF. they put in the big $ at the end of the scheme. it looks like made-off was just about done. and so were FGG and Tremont. Schulman got out. Noel was trying to sell. The markets f*cked made-off. his end game was to screw the swiss banks! anyway, he was just about there. maybe a year or two away.
some questions, though.
has anyone heard about made-off trying to sell his company in the past few years?
has anyone looked at made-off’s trades? it looks like he was in and out of the basket of stocks every quarter.
did investors get monthly statements or just quarterly? i’ll bet it was just quarterly if not annually!
Biggest post-war scam! One upside of this financial crisis; cockroaches like the Made-off and Noel family cannot hide under the kitchen sink no more. These people need to be punished severely to restore some confidence in our system.
Or will they all emigrate to Argentina with a suitcase full of cash?
@81 again. The plot thickens:
“BBH clients to gain access to Fairfield Greenwich’s broad platform of single manager hedge
funds, funds of hedge funds, real estate funds and customized portfolios of hedge funds, while
Fairfield Greenwich clients may now access BBH’s broad suite of wealth management services.
Together, the companies have in excess of US $18 billion in assets under management.” https://www.fggus.com/news/FGG_BBH_News_Release_Sep08_2008.pdf
So, let me get this straight. FGG sells to a swiss bank no one has ever heard of with combined assets of 18B (17.5B FGG and 0.5B Swiss bank) in sept. 08 just before this thing blew up!!!!
This is the last NOEL for these crooks!
7 = Corina/Monica …
All the calling for blood for FFG..does that apply to Tremont? Will Mass Mutual’s board and executives and Tremont’s Chief Investment Officer and executives have to face the music like FFG? Or are we reserving all the dire punishments only for FFG and their unsympathetic owners..but will handle Tremont with kid gloves because they’re anonymous? I say whatever FFG gets, Tremont and all the other feeder funds executives should get the same. Let’s be fair in dishing out punishment to all and not only to FFG because they’re the most visible target. You guys are so good at digging up dirt on FFG and yet are totally quiet on Tremont and it’s executives..Why?
@7, how many times did you check this site to respond to comments? You are fucking pathetic. Yes, I know this story is 5 days old.
- that guy from Goldman Sachs (a.k.a.: TGFGS).
All the money that the poor Noels, and gang lost was never theirs to begin with….. It probably came from the illegal fees that they were charging..
I believe that they did not know what Madoff was doing, but also, they never tried to find out. Their website is a bunch of lies. They really should not show their faces…They are as guilty as a diamond dealer who sells fake diamonds without ever checking if they were real. Come on, lets feel sorry for their friends who were naive enought to believe that they were doing their job…..DUE DILLIGENCE
@89 are you related to someone from FGG? Yes Tremont sucks on this one too. But the entire business at FGG was built around Madoff! Tremont was late to the game on this one well after FGG had raised billions for Madoff. Give us some dirt on Tremont too!
The Noels are what they are. The xmas cards tell you everything you need to know about them. I don’t think they were smart enough to drill down into what Madoff was doing. Their enormous success up today is all about connections and pedigree, and golden good looks, of course. People who entrusted their money to Fairfield group generally just wanted to be a part of the mythmaking and aura. I went to college with daughter Alix, and a friend’s brother, Marco, is married to another sister. There’s is a kind of unreality to that whole family that just smacks of something fanciful, farcical, you name it. For two years at Brown, Alix had everyone believing she was some princess from Brazil, when in fact, she was simply a rich chick from Greenwich. People are so seldom what they seem and it takes real due diligence and pitch-forking to get to the essence of anything. Giving money to someone because they were recommended by a friend may seem like a decent level of diligence, but it is not. Short the hype, always, and know what you are donig when it comes to your own dosh.
http://www.semana.com/noticias-nacion/mala-hora/119253.aspx
More info. All sorts of lawsuits. Conflict of interest at FGG is the main issue in this case.
@93. That’s what I can’t understand. Too dumb just doesn’t cut it. Phony richie-rich stuff sells! Noel knew and tried to weasel his way out over the past few years. He didn’t have to do any due diligence b/c he was in on it all along! come on. pretty hard to believe that 20+years even a stone cold dead idiot could figure it out. the reason he didn’t “know” is that he was in on the scam from day one. just wait…
Any special deals on the Mustique retreat?