Let them eat lox!
Peter Madoff — the prison-bound brother of Ponzi-scheming schmuck Bernie — partied hearty with friends and family at his granddaughter’s bat mitzvah yesterday, seemingly oblivious to the thousands of victims bilked because of his complicity in a multibillion-dollar fraud.
And the party will continue today, when the Madoffs trip the light fantastic at 404 NYC, a sleek event space on 10th Avenue that has hosted the likes of Chloe Sevigny, Parker Posey and Ethan Hawke.
Peter Madoff, 67, was slapped with a 10-year sentence on Dec. 20, but a judge — who received pleas from family and clergy to let the granddad attend the event — delayed Madoff’s incarceration until Feb. 6.
Yesterday, before grandkid Rebecca Skoller read from the Torah at the historic Central Synagogue in Midtown, Madoff was called up to the stage.
He said a brief prayer in Hebrew and touched his lips to the Torah — just like he’ll be kissing his freedom goodbye in two weeks.
“The suffering of others should not be forgotten,” Skoller said during the rite, expanding on a chapter she read from Exodus.
Following the ceremony, which was live-streamed online, Madoff and 100 guests, surrounded by security, went downstairs to the posh Pavilion Room, where they noshed on catered salmon, tuna and bagels.
The scene gave Madoff’s victims indigestion.
“I would much prefer that Peter Madoff be locked up and the only way he can attend the bat mitzvah is through pictures sent to him in prison,” said Michael DeVita, 62, who lost his retirement assets to the Madoff scam.
A Manhattan event planner told The Post that a 200-guest bat mitzvah with all the trimmings at a place like 404 NYC can run $75,000 to $100,000.
Meanwhile, Madoff victims like Shelly Ludlow are pinching pennies.
“I don’t think he should have any rights,” said the Long Islander, whose mom lost everything to the Ponzi scheme. “She has nothing, and here he can go and party — that’s injustice.”
Peter, the chief compliance officer at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, had worked for Bernie for 40 years and raked in $40 million from 1998 to 2008 alone.
He pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and falsifying documents.
He claimed to be “deeply ashamed and sorry,” yet maintained that he, too, was a victim of his brother’s $20 billion fraud.
US District Judge Laura Swain said the claim of ignorance was “frankly, not believable.”
Rebecca had begged the judge to let her “Papa” attend her 13th-birthday rite.
“Papa and I have always looked forward to sharing the experience of my bat mitzvah. I would give anything just to have him see me reading from the Torah even if it was only for a second,” the girl wrote.
Rebecca is the daughter of Scott Skoller and Shana Madoff, 42, Peter’s daughter and the in-house counsel and compliance director for Madoff’s now-defunct firm.
Divorced from Skoller, Shana married Eric Swanson, a former Securities and Exchange Commission inspector, in 2007.
Central Synagogue Rabbi Peter Rubinstein also wrote the judge.
“I suspect that the unfolding tragedy of Peter’s circumstances . . . were hatched early on in his dependence on his older brother as the closest father figure he had,” Rubinstein wrote.
Peter joined the 2,000-member synagogue, the oldest in the city, in 2007.
As part of his plea deal, he forfeited his assets. He and wife Marion, are roughing it in a $3,300-a-month apartment in Battery Park City.
Madoff’s next stop will be the medium-security federal prison in upstate Otisville — named by Forbes as one of the cushiest lockups in the nation.
NY POST
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