By Sherry Shameer Cohen
Since the Madoff scandal broke in December, there is one thing that's been conspicuously missing from the Fairfield Greenwich Group side: spin control. Last week, after the too little, too late statement FGG released that they were shocked about Madoff and would aggressively pursue return of the money and the none-too-flattering feature on Andres Piedrahita in The Wall Street Journal, FGG finally filed a rebuttal to William Galvin's accusations as the principals faced new fraud charges. "The complaint here was rushed into existence and is so filled with errors and factual distortions as to completely misstate the conduct of thecompanies that make up the Fairfield Greewnich Group....It is clear that the complaint proceeds on theories of 'guilt by association' and 'fraud by hindsight....The 'profound disparity' in this case is not, as the complaint alleges, between the diligence and risk monitoring practices of FGG and its representations to investors, but rather between FGG's actual conduct and the grossly unfair and misleading description of that conduct in the complaint."
Which says what, exactly? I'm not a lawyer, but this sounds like a specious argument to me. It illuminates nothing. If anything, it concedes that FGG's "actual conduct" was business as usual since the company first turned money over to Madoff. We know that the famous compliance department did very little, and it seems that the FGG spokesman was hired with similar credentials.
For the record, the FGG website claims that the firm was founded in 1983. That is simply not true. When Corina and Andres were married in 1989, she named her father's firm Walter M. Noel, Jr. Associates. In 1991, Lisina's wedding annoucement stated that Walter was an investment management consultant. When Ariane got married in 1994, her annoucement stated that Walter had an investment management business bearing his name. The name Fairfield Greenwich Group finally appeared in Alix's annoucement in 1997. Check it out for yourself in a search through The New York Times. You'll also see that Andres' professional affiliations changed between the time he was engaged to Corina in February 1989 and their wedding three and a half months later.
Any spin doctors available?
Any spin doctors available?
About Sherry Shameer Cohen:
She is a citizen journalist who is always looking for more challenging work. Her articles and photos have appeared in Connecticut Magazine, Greenwich Magazine, StamfordPlus, The Advocate, Greenwich Time, The Minuteman, Connecticut Jewish Ledger, The Jewish Chronicle, The Jewish Press, The New Jewish Voice, and various daytime magazines.
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