Despite Tough Times, Ultrarich Keep Spending [View All]

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Despite Tough Times, Ultrarich Keep Spending

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY and ERIC KONIGSBERG
Published: April 14, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/nyregion/14partying.html

Who said anything about a recession? Sometime between the government bailout of Bear Stearns and the Bureau of Labor Statistics report that America lost 80,000 jobs in March, Lee Tachman spent roughly $50,000 last month on a four-day jaunt to Miami for himself and three close friends.

The trip was an exercise in luxuriant male bonding. Mr. Tachman, who is 38, and his friends got around by private jet, helicopter, Hummer limousine, Ferraris and Lamborghinis; stayed in V.I.P. rooms at Casa Casuarina, the South Beach hotel that was formerly Gianni Versace’s mansion; and played “extreme adventure paintball” with former agents of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

Mr. Tachman, a manager for a company that executes trades for hedge funds and the owner of “a handful” of buildings in New York, said he has not felt the need to cut back.

“I always feel like there’s a sword of Damocles over my head, like it could all come crashing down at any time,” he said. “But there’s always going to be people who are trading, and there’s always going to be a demand for real estate in New York.”



Paul Parmar has added a BMW and a Bentley to his stable of cars in Colts Neck, N.J.