New York Daily News - April 4, 2007
Superbanker & gal pals invested in mutual fun By GEORGE RUSH & JOANNA MOLLOY
Who says investment bankers are dull? Former Lazard Freres big Felix Rohatyn not only brokered multibillion-dollar deals, helped save New York City from fiscal ruin and served as ambassador to France - the rainmaker also allegedly carried on the firm's proud Gallic tradition as roué.
In his dishy new book about Lazard, "The Last Tycoons," William D. Cohan recounts the tale of Rohatyn's boss, Andre Meyer, finding the door of his employee's office locked.
"Andre ... knocked briskly on the door and called Felix's name," writes Cohan. "Finally he yelled ... 'Felix, why don't you go to a hotel room like the rest of my partners!' "
Rumor had it that Rohatyn was inside with actress Shirley MacLaine. Others said he was with a secretary "who shortly thereafter enrolled - at no cost to her - in business school," says Cohan.
Rohatyn denied the office story. "I didn't need the office to get laid," he told Cohan.
Indeed, Cohan reports that in 1977, before Rohatyn remarried, he moved into a lavish duplex at 770 Park, where, according to a Lazard partner, "two hookers showed up at the same time one night in the lobby ... Each of them asked for Felix."
According to the book, even after he started dating his future wife, Liz, Rohatyn had a fling with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Ex- girlfriend Helene Gaillet suspected the affair didn't last because "the glare of publicity around Jackie was too intense and put less of the limelight on [Felix]," Cohan writes.
Rohatyn, who has been married to Liz for 27 years, was unavailable for comment.
Cohan, who worked for six years at Lazard, says dangerous liaisons were tolerated at the firm. He asserts that the first female bankers were constantly hit upon - and that one young woman was even said to have been raped by two junior bankers, who were never prosecuted.
Cohan also notes that the firm was unable to squelch word about the kinky murder in 2005 of former Lazard banker Edouard Stern, who was found shot dead in his Geneva apartment wearing a flesh-colored latex suit. He and his French lover, who confessed to the killing, had fought over a $1 million bank account.
Lazard spokeswoman Judi Mackey said in a statement that the book was "a sensationalized account" that "has nothing to do with the present state of Lazard or its business.''
A spokesman for Doubleday, which publishes the book April 17, defended the 740-page work as "meticulously researched and reported."