The New York Times reports that many of the banks, hedge funds, and investment firms (and accounting firms) that reeped extraordinary fees from steering clients' investments to Bernie Madoffs spectacular ponzi scheme will now face tough scrutiny themselves. The main case in point is the Fairfield Greenwich Group, whose founder, Walter Noel, is a prime example of the sort of scumbag we all can hope this scandal brings down. You may have been reading about this guy in recent days. His firm brought in more than $500 million in fees since 2003 alone for the investments Greenwich placed with Madoff. Noel reportedly has five luxury homes -- in Greenwich, Southampton, Palm Beach, and New York City -- with a combined value of more than $20 million.
Fairfield hauled in money for Madoff's scheme by promising its clients it would assiduously monitor their money with Madoff, independently calculating the value of the funds invested with Madoff, reconciling statements of trades with Madoff's custodial records, etc. It's now not at all clear that Fairfield took any of those steps to protect its clients.
We can hope that slimeballs like Walter Noel end up in the slammer along with Bernie Madoff.