Vinny the Chin
That’s the word being put around here in Greenwich by his friends. I wouldn’t wish that horrible condition on anyone and if it’s true, I feel terribly sorry for the Noels at the timing – they’ll be incurring huge expenses just when their assets are imploding. But (a) it’s rumor, not fact and (b) I’ve read plenty of horror stories already about pensioners who have lost their life savings in the Madoff/FGG Ponzi scheme and I’m not necessarily opposed to the “sauce for the gander” theory of divine Karma.
It does remind me a bit of that old Steve Martin routine on SNL about how to avoid paying taxes: “First, don’t pay your taxes. Then, when the IRS shows up at your door, two simple word, just two words, will make them go away, forever: ‘I forgot!’ ”
Still, it will be interesting to see if this rumor goes anywhere. If Noel’s partner Jeffrey Tucker starts wandering around in a ratty bathrobe and slippers, we’ll know the two men share the same lawyer.
For What It's Worth 
Harry Helmsley was excused from his trial because he was too far gone. But they got Leona, so there is hope that justice might be visited upon Tucker, two daughters, and four son-in-laws, even if Walt is gaga.
I saw him in Greenwich about a year ago shopping before going on his trip to Mustique. I’d known him for years and thought maybe he just didn’t recognize me…maybe I had changed too much over the years….but later I had the same suspicion of Alzheimer’s. Often these patients in early stages are alert in the day but as the sun goes down they get more disoriented. He is often seen driving alone and doing errands on his own in Greenwich and Southampton during the day. Best wishes old friend.
WOuld FGG then not have a fiduciary obligation to inform their clients that their main contact was unable to perform his duties (namely, due diligence)?
And that just puts the onus on Piedrahita, Tucker, and all the other people there. Because if Walter was mentally incompetent, the burden of actually doing the work would have had to be done by them.
I feel like they are grasping at straws. It took them a MONTH to come up with the Alzheimer’s thing? Wouldn’t you think that that would have come up RIGHT AWAY? Hand me the popcorn, this will be amusing to watch.
Campaign contributions for Q4/2007 had him listed as retired. Others in 2008 indicated FGG.
Did he forget he retired, or was the gravy train just too irresistible?
OH, and remember how Walter went to the ROund Hill Club Christmas party the Sunday after Bernie’s news came out? I know several people who went to that party and saw him. Not one said anything about him seeming “forgetful”, and the party was hardly at noon/daytime. And he went to a black-tie dinner dance/party in NYC the Tuesday after that (I think you had pics, CF?) – ditto. I’m not buying the Alzheimer’s.
I figure he went to the Round Hill Club’s Christmas Party because he’d forgotten what had happened the day before!
Walt was on the Christmas party circuit because he didn’t understand that being a salesman for a Ponzi scheme means that a court is going to order him and the boys to repay the $1 billion in fees FFG collected from Madoff. Now that his lawyers have explained it to him he is partying less.