Bianca Murray was already dealing with the agony of losing her entire life savings – and facing a $2,210 tax payment due today – when the 82-year-old widow got a shocking phone call from a stranger saying she was on a massive public list of Bernard Madoff’s victims.
“I never heard from her before,” Murray said yesterday. “She said, ‘You need a lawyer.’ ”
“I’ve been so upset and depressed about this,” said the Blairstown, NJ, resident about losing her $175,000 nest egg, which she planned to leave to her children. “I can’t forget it. I think about it night and day. I cry a lot.
“I had something to leave them, and now I have no more.”
East Village jewelry designer Alexandra Story, 40, was equally stunned when a Post reporter called to ask about her presence on the list, which was filed Wednesday in US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.
“I thought it was confidential. I had no idea my name would be out there,” said the mother of two, who also lost her entire life savings, as did her mother, father and sister.
“I told my friends about Madoff but it’s not like I took out an ad about it,” said Story, who estimated her loss at just under $1 million.
Story and Murray are facing hard choices because of their reduced circumstances.
“My family has had a brownstone for 40 years and now they have to sell it,” Story said.
When asked if she would also have to sell her home, Murray choked up, pleading, “Oh, please don’t say that,” but then admitted she’ll have put her house on the market if her Social Security payments are not enough to get her by.
Meanwhile, more high-profile names emerged from the 163-page list, including that of Morris Talansky, 76, the Long Island businessman whose allegedly questionable payments to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert led to Olmert’s resignation last year.
Talansky “lost over a million dollars,” said his criminal-defense lawyer, Bradley Simon.
Also on the list are real-estate developer William Achenbaum as well as Long Island developer Edward Blumenfeld and the late hardware-chain founder Murray Pergament.
After news reports disclosed that the name of World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein was on the list, his spokesman issued a statement saying, “Losses incurred by Larry Silverstein and his family absolutely pale in comparison to those innocent investors who lost their life savings as a result of this scheme.”
Madoff’s defense lawyer, Ira Lee Sorkin, said his own name was on the list only because he had received mail for a relative who was an investor. Sorkin added that he never invested with his client.