"I Had an Affair With Bernie Madoff," Victim Says in Book
Ex-Hadassah CFO claims in new book she and Madoff got up-close-and-personal
By JENNIFER MILLMAN
Updated 4:30 PM EST, Thu, Aug 13, 2009
First Bernie Madoff had an affair with ex-Hadassah CFO Sheryl Weinstein. And then he took her house.
Madoff, a former Nasdaq chairman, is currently serving a 150-year prison term for masterminding the $65 billion Ponzi scheme that cost thousands of people, including Weinstein and her family, their life savings, homes and sense of security.
Perhaps the accountant is trying to recoup some of her money by publishing a tell-all book – "Madoff's Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me." Or maybe she's trying to get back at Bernie by revealing a secret she withheld for more than a decade.
The hardcover, which will include photos and some uber-intimate descriptions of the backward banker, is slated to hit bookstands later this month, according to Bloomberg. Amazon.com Inc. and Barnes & Noble Inc. are already taking advance orders for what is sure to be an evocative and perhaps, vengeful, account of their time together.
The 200-page book was ghostwritten and is a "fast read," John Murphy, spokesman for publisher St. Martin's Press, told Bloomberg. The cover price is $23.99.
It's unclear how many juicy details will be revealed of the affair Weinstein claims she and Madoff had after they met 20 years ago. If her comments at his sentencing are any indication, she harbors some resentment against the man she calls her ex-lover.
"He is a beast that has stolen for his own needs the livelihoods, savings, lives, hopes and dreams and futures of others,” she said. “He has fed upon us to satisfy his own needs. No matter how much he takes and from whom he takes, he is never satisfied. He is an equal opportunity destroyer.”
The 60-year-old woman told the judge the inauspicious day she met Madoff was the "unluckiest day of my life because of the many events set into motion."
Ultimately, Weinstein and her husband of 37 years had to sell their Upper East Side home because they "lost everything." And now she's trying to get a little bit back.
“She’s entitled to her free speech, I suppose,” Madoff lawyer Ira Sorkin told Bloomberg. “Why one would go public with something like that, I don’t know. She’s entitled to say anything that might be deemed derogatory about herself.”
Weinstein couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
First Published: Aug 13, 2009 11:01 AM EST on NBC New York
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