She used to lunch at the exclusive Four Seasons. Now, the best-selling author jokes that she’s inviting friends to Taco Bell. Call it gallows humor, but Alexandra Penney has just lost her life’s savings.

She invested every penny with accused Ponzi-schemer Bernard Madoff. Penney thought she had weathered the bear market just fine, since Madoff put her money in super-safe Treasuries. Then, on December 11, she received a call from her best friend.

“She said, ‘I hope this is a rumor, but I’ve just heard Bernie Madoff’s been arrested,’ ” Penney recalls. “My other phone rang; it was my son. And he said, ‘Mom, sit down.’ He said, ‘Bernie Madoff’s been arrested.’ And I said, ‘For what?’ And he said, ‘He’s a crook.’ ”
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