Feeling Sorry For Bernie

Louis Lanzano / AP Photo As Madoff rots in prison, another psychopathic grifter, Marc Dreier, lives in luxury. Allan Dodds Frank on how Judith Regan and O.J. Simpson keep a $700 million crook in his penthouse.

As you read this, Marc Dreier, a Harvard Law School-educated con man of unprecedented chutzpah is lounging around his $10 million, 34th Floor apartment on a posh block on Manhattan’s East Side. Guarded by security that runs $50,000 a month, he might be sunning himself on the 1,000 square foot terrace, towering over 58th Street and Lexington Avenue. The guards - outfitted in coats and ties—escort guests from the lobby where they try not to disturb Dreier's famous neighbors, including former General Electric CEO Jack Welch and his wife Suzy, entertainers Beyonce and Jay-Z, NBC anchorman Brian Williams and Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon.

The $30,000 a month for Dreier’s mortgage and apartment maintenance comes from the funds intended to reimburse his victims. Meanwhile, his apartment, the largest remaining asset to be liquidated by the bankruptcy trustees, probably can’t be sold until he moves out.

Poor Bernie Madoff. After he pleaded guilty, his judge called him a "flight risk" and rousted him from his $7 million penthouse just five blocks north of Dreier's. So on Monday, when Dreier pled guilty to a $700 million fake securities scheme, it might have seemed to be equal justice if Dreier—whose criminal schemes included impersonating other people—had been locked up immediately. Instead, District Judge Jed Rakoff ranked Dreier with “some of the most egregious frauds in history,” then released him to his gilded cage, where he is restricted by an electronic ankle bracelet. Out on $10 million bail, the 58-year-old faces up to 145 years in prison when he is sentenced in July 13.

Admitting “one rarely encounters a less appealing beneficiary of bail,” the judge nonetheless allowed Dreier to return home on the grounds that he is not a “flight risk,” given that he is being monitored 24 hours a day by armed former FBI agents.

Flight risk or not, Dreier’s presence is not enhancing property values at the building known as One Beacon Court, where the neighborhood bar and takeout joint downstairs is Le Cirque. “I know the building itself—I am often in contact with the lawyer representing the condominium board—they are not happy with this situation. They want it to end as soon as possible,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Streeter said in court Monday, arguing that Dreier should go straight to jail.

The $30,000 a month for Dreier’s mortgage and apartment maintenance comes from the funds intended to reimburse his victims. Meanwhile, his apartment, the largest remaining asset to be liquidated by the bankruptcy trustees, probably can’t be sold until he moves out.

The relative freedom Dreier enjoys raises the question of equal justice and whether—under the guise of co-operating with investigators—he may be able to continue perpetrating what one of his adversaries—publisher Judith Regan—calls another giant fraud.

Allow me to refresh your recollection about Marc Dreier. For about 72 hours from December 8 to December 11, 2008, Dreier was the biggest white collar securities fraud crook in captivity, until his audacious fraud was totally eclipsed by Madoff’s dazzling multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme.

Educated at Yale College and Harvard Law, Dreier was the sole equity owner of Dreier, LLP, a 250-member law firm with a swanky Park Avenue office housing a major art collection. He had flashy clothes, famous clients and friends, boats, private planes, a house in the Hamptons, all the trappings of the ultra-wealthy.

Then he got caught impersonating a pension fund officer in Canada and his five-year long brazen multi-national scheme to sell fake securities unraveled.

Madoff and Dreier are the yin and yang of white-collar captivity. Madoff, at first, stayed out on $10 million bail, then was quickly placed under house arrest before being sent to prison for good after pleading guilty on March 12. Meanwhile, Dreier—deemed an extreme flight risk by the court—was placed in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Correctional Center immediately after being arrested. Then his lawyer, Gerald Shargel, who once got mobster John Gotti Jr. out with a similar house arrest deal, sprung Dreier in February—on terms similar to Madoff’s.

Today, Dreier remains at home, in part, for the convenience of bankruptcy lawyers—the people charged with recovering money for Dreier’s victims—who would rather not ask him questions in jail because he does not seem to focus as well behind bars. “When I met him at the MCC, he had difficulty remembering the names of people and some difficulty in responding to my questions,” Bankruptcy Trustee Shelia Gowan told Judge Rakoff. “I assume that was due to the stress of incarceration.”