High Life

Wednesday, 7th January 2009

Interesting season

Gstaad

When Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet committed suicide just before Christmas, I hoped against hope that others would do the same. No such luck. Villehuchet was an aristocrat, a gentleman and an honest man. He felt responsible for the loss of $1.4 billion and he took the honourable way out. I did not know Villehuchet but people who did have spoken very highly of him. The rest of Madoff’s gang I do know, and they are as likely to do the honourable thing as I am to emigrate to Israel.

Most of these friends of Madoff own chalets in Gstaad, or visit regularly. I have warned personnel at the Gstaad Palace, the Yacht Club and the Eagle Club that if I come across any of them there will be fisticuffs. Not that any of them would fight. People like that rarely do. The reason I’m so angry is that so many good people have been ruined by the greed of a few ‘feeder’ fund managers and so-called bankers. I will start with one Michael de Picciotto. His uncle, Edgar de Picciotto, is the founder and chairman of Union Bancaire Privée, a Geneva-based bank that invested client money with Madoff. The Picciottos are Syrian–Lebanese Jews who have become extremely rich these past 20 years. Somewhere along the way they picked up the aristocratic ‘de’, that being the only similarity any Picciotto has had with anything resembling aristocracy. The younger Picciotto invested $700 million with Madoff. Didn’t the amazing return on Madoff’s fund ring any alarm bells in Picciotto’s head? What needs to be done now is for the UBP to cough up the moolah to the clients it took down the Swanee. The bank has the money — at the last count the UBP had 125 billion greenbacks under management — but parting with it is a different story altogether. Angry investors are now seeking to recover a portion of their funds, but what I’d like to know is why only a portion. The Picciottos are now deeply involved in damage control. They have myriad lawyers and PR flacks, and as I write I hear that Edgar Picciotto is planning to come up to Gstaad. Although he is old and very ugly, a punch in the face would do him a world of good.

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Peter McCormick

January 8th, 2009 3:06pm Report this comment

Merkin, whose name appears in the antepenultimate paragraph, means pubic wig, the OED tells me. Coincidence?

Lorenzo

January 9th, 2009 10:03am Report this comment

Taki...allways spot on!!! Bravo

Minnie Ovens

January 9th, 2009 12:27pm Report this comment

Oh Gosh!
Memories of Geneva in 1968 and I.O.S. meetings.
At least Bernie Cornfeld was a human being unlike these members of the slug family.
My apologies to real slugs.

richard Saltiel

January 9th, 2009 8:15pm Report this comment

well done Taki finally someone comes out and says it the way it is ... these scoundrels bunch of marauding gangsters should be taken to task and you have done just that 'gloves off' - i raise my hat to you. THEY SHOULD NOT GET AWAY WITH IT, THEY MUST BE HELD PERSONALLY ACCOUNTABLE

christian jacques

January 11th, 2009 5:12pm Report this comment

Bravo ! i can only congratulate you to for your true article.

David Short

January 12th, 2009 3:17pm Report this comment

Is this writer an anti-Semite? Does anyone else feel his remarks about emigrating to Israel offensive to all who died and suffered in the Holocaust?

What kind of people allow this comment to be published?

David Short

January 12th, 2009 3:23pm Report this comment

All rich people got that way through crime and violence.

It is hypocritical to go on about 'new money'.

Just because your ancestors are dead and buried thugs and were able buy into 'aristocracy' does not make them any better than modern, living common thugs.

Jonathan

January 13th, 2009 12:15pm Report this comment

Completely shocking article. What an antisemite. Why is relevant that Madoff and de Picciotto are Jewish? What is the relevance of you moving to Israel or not?

Joe Roth

January 15th, 2009 6:04pm Report this comment

Dear Taki,
Like you, I happen to know some victims of Madoff.
What I do not understand is how come Mr. Charles Fix (a Greek gentleman like you) who I happen to have met is portrayed in your article as an innocent victim while all the jewish victims of Madoff are portrayed as scoundrels who should be "deported" from the Oberland. Piedrahita (who's not jewish) you seem to dislike because he is a snob. You are correct; he is (or was) a snob, but coming from you it is a harsh verdict indeed. There is no difference between Picciotto, Fix, Arki and all the others; the difference is only in your biased (need I say antisemitic) mind. You are a very angry man, Taki. Maybe you are right; there might be too much "snow" in Gstaad this season; you know what I mean.

Andrew Hingston

January 15th, 2009 11:43pm Report this comment

I suggest that government lawyers are rarely less good than those 'fatcats' arrayed against them. The top private lawyers (in the US at least) generally did a turn in one or another govt law department, stringing up the bad guys. That's how they learn. Madoff and his cronies will get theirs. But it won't help the gullible and greedy who helped him along. And it probably won't help the next guys either, for memories on Wall Street (and its twins around the world) are always very short when the money is rolling in.