Madoff-Mania Brings Chaos to NYC East 64th Street Neighborhood

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Madoff-Mania Brings Chaos to NYC East 64th Street Neighborhood
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By Oshrat Carmiel

Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Now it's Bernard Madoff's mailman who is suffering from what is being called the largest investment fraud in history.

"It's only on this corner where I have a problem," Perry Pecorino, the letter carrier for 133 East 64th Street, said yesterday. "You gotta fight through the people, going in and out of the building. Everybody's in the way."

The 70-year-old Madoff, accused of masterminding a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, has left a trail of angry investors and regulators since his arrest Dec. 11. Investors who may face losses include HSBC Holdings Plc., Yeshiva University and Steven Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation. Madoff is charged with a single count of securities fraud. A Ponzi scheme involves taking money from new investors to pay off older investors.

Released on $10 million bond this week, Madoff is now under around-the-clock house arrest, complete with security guards. Madoff's stay in his Upper East Side Manhattan home, where he wears a monitoring bracelet and was subject to a 7 p.m. curfew until a judge barred him Friday afternoon from leaving his apartment at all, means a constant stream of reporters and onlookers in and around the building, hoping for an interview with Madoff.

On Wednesday, as many as 20 photographers surrounded him as he walked past his building and stepped into a waiting sports utility vehicle. Video footage of the media melee shows Madoff extending his arm to keep the press at a distance, and then a photographer pushing him backward.

During Friday afternoon's snowstorm, at least four photographers huddled beneath the awning of Madoff's building. Three video cameras stood mounted nearby coated in plastic covering. And motorists slowed to crane their necks as they drove past the intersection.

'Despicable' Media

"They're there 24 hours, it's really despicable" said Jay Bolusa, who lives one block east of Madoff, and walks her dog past Madoff's building every day. "Imagine going out of your apartment and you see all the media. It's terrible! You're not free."

Residents walking in and out of Madoff's building Friday picked up speed if they sensed a reporter was approaching. One woman pulled her child close as she stepped into the lobby.

Madoff's doormen did double duty as security guards and traffic police. Two doormen yesterday stood sentry behind the lobby's glass doors, preventing any media from crossing the threshold. A third directed traffic, as media cars tried to park out front, along a sidewalk where signs say "No Standing Anytime."

"Excuse me," asked Alex Wilhelm, a tourist from Germany passing by reporters on his way to his hotel. "May I ask you who's in there?"

Shopping Draw

A television van was parked on the corner of 64th Street and Lexington Avenue since Wednesday, said Cecilly Bumatay, 24, the store manager of Pylones, a French gift and trinket shop on Madoff's block.

As yesterday's snowstorm began to blanket the city, the television workers erected a tent by the parked van.

"What are they going to get -- a picture of him?" said Les Miller, a pharmaceutical representative for Pfizer Inc. who made three sales visits this week to the doctor's office across the street. "It's stupid. They've been here all week."

Devon Harris, a 22-year-old salesman at Pylones, said the attention has been great for business, as the curious stop in and ask what all the media fuss is about.

"They're asking questions, but they're shopping at the same time," he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Oshrat Carmiel in New York http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=home