Weeks ago, Gripebox took a look at how some 740 Park residents were faring in the Great Recession. This week another, hedge fund honcho J. Ezra Merkin entered the 9th Circle of Financial Hell when it was revealed that he was one of the big investors — to the tune of $100 million — in disgraced money manager Bernard Madoff‘s alleged Ponzi Fund. Coincidentally, the Merkin-Madoff relationship ties 740 Park to the subject of one of my earlier books, a biography of fashion’s Ralph Lauren. As a boy, Lauren attended the orthodox religious school Salanter Yeshiva, predecessor to today’s SAR Academy. Merkin invested $1.3 million of SAR’s endowment with Madoff. That investment is now valued at zero.