Hedge fund executive who funneled money to Madoff jumps from hotel (2024)

A hedge fund manager who lost billions of his clients' money to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme leaped to his death from the luxury Sofitel hotel in midtown Manhattan.

Charles W. Murphy, 56, was wearing a dark business suit when he plunged to his death from the24th floor of the 45 W. 44th St. building at around 4:42pm on Monday.

The father-of-two financier, who was married to his second wife, plummeted 20 floors before hitting a fourth floor terrace, according to the NYPD, and died at the scene.

The former hedge fund he ran, Fairfield Greenwich, poured $7billion into Madoff's ponzi scheme before it was uncovered in 2008.

Murphy was renting a room at the time, even though he owns a $36million townhouse just 20 blocks away on the Upper East Side.

The couple would host lavish parties in the property with members of the Manhattan social elite.

When he died he was working with Paulson & Co., another New York hedge fund.

Founder Paul Johnson released a statement onMonday night saying 'We are extremely saddened by this news. Charles was an extremely gifted and brilliant man, a great partner and a true friend.'

In December 2013, Fairfield Greenwich settled a class action suit for $80.2million, according to a websitefor Madoff's victims. They were sued for failing to protect investor assets.

Almost 3,000 investors claimed a portion of the settlement.

Murphy was a Partner and Member of the Executive Committee. The group's Fairfield Sentry Fund was the disgraced financier's biggest feeder fund.

Up until the scandal, the fund had been paid more than 11 percent interest each year following a 15-year relationship with the Ponzi crook.

On the day Madoff was taken into federal custody in 2008, he was working with Fairfield to set up a new fund.

The Koch brothers, Charles and David, moved $2billion overseas that they managed to make from Madoff before his scheme collapsed.

Most of that involved transfers from funds that were operated by Fairfield Greenwich Group.

After Madoff's arrest, the town of Fairfield, Connecticut, lost a reported $42million of its pension plan for police, fire fighters and local government employees on Madoff investments.

Murphy is now the fourth person connected to Madoff to commit suicide in the years following the Ponzi scheme scandal.

French aristocrat Rene Thierry Magon De La Villehuchet was found dead in 2008 just after the news broke. His AIA Group lost $1.5 billion.

Ex-U.S. Army major William Foxton, 65, killed himself in 2009. A year later, Madoff's son Mark was found dead after he hanged himself in his New York apartment.

Murphy was previously a research analyst at Morgan Stanley, and was cohead of the European financial institutions group at Credit Suisse.

He graduated from Harvard Law School and MIT Sloan School of Management.

In 2007, Murphy boughtthe East 67th Street townhouse of Matthew Bronfman for $33 million. He was married to Annabella Murphy, his second wife.

Murphy reportedly tried to off-load the limestone gem, built in 1899, during the Madoff crisis but found no takers. He listed it again in 2016 for $50million, according to The Real Deal.

It is now on the market for $36million, listed with Corcoran.

It is described as being 11,550 square feet with roof terrace with views of Central Park, a private staff quarters, a gym, a wine cellar, and elevator and a Crestron Total Home Technology system.

A parking attendant at a nearby garage told the New York Post that Murphy's wife, Annabella , crashed their Honda Odyssey last summer but could not afford to fix it.

'She didn't even have enough money to pay for the damage,' the attendant said.

Murphy's first wife, former Heather Kerzner, got married to hotel billionaire Sol Kerzner after the pair split.

They were married for 11 years before their marriage ended in divorce.

Rooms at the Sofitel begin at $150 a night, and the hotel is popular with celebrities, VIPs, and tourists.

In 2011, the hotel made headlines around the world when French politician and head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was accused of raping a maid in the Sofitel.

Three months later, all charges were dismissed. In 2012, he settled a lawsuit with the maid.