A fuming former employee of Bernard Madoff recently turned into Wall Street’s version of a raging bull when he tried to mete out street justice on the Ponzi king’s son, sources told The Post.
Former Madoff Securities trader Reed Abend, 36, ran into Andrew Madoff — also an employee of the fraudulent firm — and Andrew’s girlfriend leaving a restaurant on the Upper East Side last January, Abend’s lawyer, Robert Altchiler said.
The meeting went south in a hurry, allegedly ending in a flurry of fists between the two men after a heated exchange over cash.
Abend chewed out Andrew over his father’s $65 billion scheme, which cost thousands of investors their life savings, a source said.
The spurned former securities trader trashed Bernard Madoff for shorting him $450,000 in bonuses and failing to treat him like family, Altchiler said.
But Andrew — who defended his old man, as did gal pal Catherine Hooper, according to a report on Dealbreaker.com — merely whined, “What about me?” the lawyer said.
The two men started to walk away from each other, but Madoff then put his food down on a car, walked back to Abend, and punched him on the side of the head, leading to a brief scuffle, Altchiler said.
Abend gave a valiant effort but ended up going to a hospital for his injuries, the lawyer said.
Andrew walked away no worse for wear and later bragged that he got in some good punches, a former co-worker said.
Yesterday, residents of Abend’s Upper East Side building were surprised to learn that their mild-mannered neighbor had turned into a Wall Street warrior — but they cheered his bravery.
“I think he did what a lot of people probably thought of doing but don’t have the courage to do,” said a neighbor who’s a financial analyst.
Calls to a spokeswoman for the Madoff family went unreturned.
Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty March 12 to masterminding Wall Street’s biggest scam. No relatives have been charged.