Downward Mobility

The Madoff Lifestyle

How did he spend his money?

So what, exactly, was Bernard Madoff doing with all the money he allegedly filched from his investors? He was a regular patron at the Everglades Barber Shop in Palm Beach, where he owned a $21 million home. Among his services there were a $65 haircut, a $40 shave, a $50 pedicure, and a $22 manicure. When he dined at The Palm, a Palm Beach institution, he insisted on sitting at the front. He played golf at the Palm Beach Country Club—he was a 9.8 handicap—and also owned a 55-foot wooden fishing boat. In Manhattan he lived in an Upper East Side apartment he bought for $3.325 million in 1990. His wife, Ruth, in her free time, co-edited a cookbook in 1996 called The Great Chefs of America Cook Kosher that featured recipes from the likes of Daniel Boulud and Wolfgang Puck.