04/03/09 Why aren’t these guys in jail? The Noel clan including the son in law’s are involved in all sorts of chicanery

Nobody Covers Greenwich Like The New York Times

Big Payouts Were Planned for Fairfield Executives

Shortly before Bernard L. Madoff confessed to a Ponzi scheme that burned through tens of billions of dollars, partners of Fairfield Greenwich Group, one of Mr. Madoff’s biggest feeder funds, were on track to collect a combined $117 million in pay for 2008.

The estimated compensation figures were disclosed in an exhibit to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by Massachusetts securities regulators, who contend that Fairfield’s inadequate due diligence on Mr. Madoff’s operations amounted to a fraud on its investors.

The exhibit consists of spreadsheets attached to an e-mail that Daniel Lipton, Fairfield’s chief financial officer, apparently e-mailed to himself on Dec. 11, 2008 — the same day Mr. Madoff was arrested by authorities in connection with running a vast investment scheme.

Fairfield’s $7 billion Sentry funds were more than 95 percent invested with Mr. Madoff, but Fairfield also managed billions of dollars in other funds, all of which performed poorly last year. Even before Mr. Madoff’s arrest, the firm had already conducted two rounds of layoffs.

Nevertheless, Jeffrey Tucker and Walter Noel, Fairfield’s co-founders, were each expected to earn about $19 million in 2008, the document shows. In 2007, before the markets went south, both men made over $30 million. Andrés Piedrahita, the managing partner of Fairfield Greenwich and Mr. Noel’s son-in-law, was to make over $28 million for 2008. In 2007, Mr. Piedrahita took home over $45 million.

Massachusetts wants to force Fairfield to disgorge the fees it earned from its relationship with Mr. Madoff; a Fairfield spokesman declined to comment Wednesday.

At the top, an excerpt from the spreadsheet filed with the Massachusetts lawsuit. The initials at the top, in descending order, refer to Mr. Piedrahita, Mr. Tucker and Mr. Noel.

===============================================================

Please send your comments, news tips and press releases to GreenwichRoundup@gmail.com or click on the comments link at the end of this post.