The Bernie Madoff fallout is
getting ugly.
IF alleged Ponzi-scheme mastermind Bernie Madoff is the most hated man in Palm Beach, then Bob Jaffe, one of Madoff's chief recruiters, is the second-most detested - and he nearly got his clock cleaned at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club.
A source tells Page Six that Jaffe, who persuaded friends to invest with Madoff and got a hefty commission for each transaction, showed up at the black-tie birthday bash for carpet czar John Stark on Saturday night.
"Nobody could believe he had the balls to show up because about 25 percent of the guests were people who lost hundreds of millions of dollars with Madoff," one witness told Page Six.
"One of the victims was Nine West founder Jerome Fisher, who lost $150 million. Fisher, who's 78, sees Jaffe and goes absolutely nuts. He stalks up to him and screams at the top of his lungs, 'You dirty bastard! And on top of everything, you got a [bleep]ing commission to get me to invest!'
"It nearly came to blows and I think people wanted to see a good fight, but they were separated . . . Jaffe looked like a ghost, but incredibly, he stayed all night. What nerve."
Meanwhile, the fatcat Democrat scam artist has some
new jewelry to wear.
Mega-swindler Bernard Madoff has a new piece of "jewelry" that money can't buy - an electronic-monitor anklet that he must wear as he sits in his East Side penthouse awaiting trial for allegedly bilking investors out of $50 billion.
The decision by a judge yesterday came as Madoff's wife, Ruth, was reported to be under investigation over whether she helped keep secret records in the scam.
The judge's ruling allows the billion-dollar bandit to stay out of jail, even though he couldn't meet all the bail conditions.
Prosecutors and federal Judge Gabriel Gorenstein waived the stipulation that he provide four co-signers to his $10 million bond after he and his wife agreed to put up their three homes, in addition to a curfew and electronic monitoring.
I guess his property can't be seized just yet. This guy might want to keep a very low profile.
A lawyer who represents nearly 100 people who may have lost their shirts in Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme called the no-jail arrangement "unfair."
"A lot of our clients, emotionally, would like to see him sitting in prison. There is certainly a lot of anger out there," attorney Brad Friedman said.
Former federal prosecutor Kerry Lawrence said the deal was reached likely because Madoff appears to have been cooperative from the start.
Friedman said he has begun trying to identify Madoff's assets, but that it was unlikely the effort would even make a dent in the losses.
"We have uncovered stuff that certainly is worth millions of dollars but in the context of this case, it's bupkis" - nothing, he said. "We've found houses, cars and boats, but that's chump change."
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