Via my buddy Christopher Fountain, Realtor extraordinaire from Greenwich, this tale about one classy guy.
A North Shore philanthropist yesterday paid out $5 million of his own money to restore the retirement savings of his employees who lost their nest eggs to admitted swindler Bernard L. Madoff.
Robert I. Lappin made up for the lost savings of the 60 employees of his company, Salem-based Shetland Properties Inc., and of his private charity, the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, whose 401(k) plans were managed by Madoff.
Lappin himself lost some of his personal fortune to Madoff, and his foundation was forced to briefly close last December after $8 million of its money vanished in what investigators call the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
“I wanted to do the right thing,’’ Lappin said. “And, I feel, I’ve done the right thing and that to me is my reward.’’
Lappin has owned Shetland Properties Inc. for 51 years. Though he declined to specify his losses to Madoff, Lappin said his net worth is less than $10 million, a 10th of what it was before the scandal.
If you wish to see the opposite of a Bernie Madoff, Robert Lappin is it.
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