he attracted a partner who also had a... a good track record, jeffrey tucker. they joined forces and got fairfield greenwich up and going. >> smith: walter noel's assistant remembers how, at first, they struggled until they found madoff. >> jeffrey just told walter, "i've got this guy who's got really impressive returns." you know, "come meet him. let's look into it. maybe there's a product we can develop." once they created fairfield sentry to invest exclusively with madoff, that's when things really started to accelerate. >> smith: and what attracted them was not just madoff's steady returns, but an unusual fee arrangement. >> madoff didn't charge them any fees. he said, "i'm making all my money on trading through my market-making operation and commissions, and so i won't take any fees and you can keep it all." >> smith: for a feeder fund like fairfield sentry, those client fees added up to around $100 million a year. >> the feeder fund is taking, you know, two in 20 or one and 10, 1% of the assets and 10% of the returns. and all these guys did was just dump