Greenwich's So-Called High Society
A US hedge fund, Fairfield Greenwich, has been charged with fraud
for pumping nearly $7bn of its clients' money into Bernard Madoff's
fund. The Fairfield Greenwich hedge fund caught up in the scandal is
run by Walter Noel, a high-profile New York Jewish society figure
whose glamorous family was once described by Vanity Fair magazine as
"shoring up the virtues of a nearly extinct aristocracy". Charges
filed by Massachusetts' secretary of state, William Galvin, said 95%
of the firm's $7.2bn Sentry fund was invested with Madoff, who
admitted in court last month that he had barely done any genuine
trading for nearly 20 years.
Fairfield is accused of lying to its clients that it had detailed
access to Madoff's accounts. Fairfield was typically given forged
trading tickets by Madoff after a lag of three to five days. Instead
of containing detailed prices, these provided weighted average prices
from baskets of stocks.
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