Madoff adjusts to life in a gilded jail - his neighbors not so much

Disgraced trader Bernard Madoff may be relieved not to have to trade in the comforts of his $7 million East Side penthouse for a jail cell, but his neighbors are none too happy.

Residents like Today show host Matt Lauer and Barclays director Diego Gradowczyk now have to contend with throngs of cameramen and angry demonstrators every time they want to dash out to nearby Madison Avenue to do some Christmas shopping.

This was not what life in an exclusive Lenox Hill coop was supposed to be.

But Manhattan Federal Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein, who originally demanded four co-signers to back Madoff’s $10 million bail, changed his mind after the trader came up with just two - his brother and wife.

Instead of locking him up, Gorenstein ordered Madoff confined to his 12th-floor apartment at 133 E. 64th St, where he is required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet to monitor his every move. The apartment was used as collateral to secure the bond, along with Madoff’s mansions in Montauk, New York and Palm Beach, Florida.

But why is the mastermind of a $50-billion fraud getting such kid-gloved treatment?

The New York Daily News cites unnamed sources that Madoff has been the target of numerous death threats.

Another theory has it that he is providing valuable help to the agents digging through a morass of books to trace the scope of the alleged Ponzi scheme.

In any case, the apartment, as well as the other properties, are likely to be liquidated in the future to pay back Madoff’s legions of swindled investors. Little is known about the apartment. But a story in the Jewish Daily Forward recalls a grand foyer and living room lined with Greek and Egyptian statues and gold sconces, which were glimpsed during a visit five years ago.

Madoff’s firm, meanwhile, has also been put into receivership, and the Securities Investor Protection Corp., a government fund, has begun fielding calls from investors seeking remuneration.

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