As editor of Martin Schrager, a plastics recycling industry consultant in Boca Raton, Fla., was a college roommate of alleged investment fraud perpetrator Bernard Madoff, according to this story in The New York Times.
Here's what Schrager had to say about Madoff:
He was my roommate. There was nothing nefarious about the guy. When I heard years later that he was who he was, I was astonished. He never seemed like the kind of guy who could move millions on Wall Street.I did hear about him some years later in Florida. My accountant was his accountant. I invested a small amount with him. But those were the years we had a president named James Earl Carter. Interest rates were like 18 percent. So I figured that if you put your money in the bank they gave you 18 percent and a toaster. So I took my money and got 18 percent and a toaster, too. Then he went on to infamy.
Sounds like Schrager is one of the few former Madoff investors who came out ahead.