Bitz fared worse

According to a New York Times story about the investigation at the time, the feds were interested in Cohen's relationship with Bitz, now out of jail, and organized crime. In 1981, Cohen agreed to plead guilty to 20 misdemeanor counts of bribing a union official. "The crime you committed is a serious one," the judge told Cohen on the day of his sentencing. "It was motivated partly by greed, because you were looking to get an edge in your business Charm Bracelet ... if you could get these union hoodlums off your back, and you had no courage." Robert Cohen got three years' probation and no jail time. Bitz fared worse: Five months later the tiny gangster was kidnapped and murdered. His body washed up on a Staten Island beach. SYMBOLS OF AN AGE By the mid-1980s, things seemed back to normal for the Cohens. Robert was off probation, and business was booming Sweetie Bracelet. The media spotlight was shining much brighter on Claudia Cohen and her husband, who soon became symbols of the excesses of the 1980s.

Spy magazine made sport of their over-the-top home renovations. In his biography of Perelman, When Money Is King, author Richard Hack described how she ordered an enormous cooling system to replace an air conditioner that took 15 minutes to bring the temperature down from 90 to 78 degrees. "What I want from an air conditioner is you turn it on--and it's cool," Claudia barked, according to Hack. In 1990, Perelman and Claudia Cohen's daughter, Samantha, was born. Perelman and Claudia's relationship soured, and they divorced in 1994 Perelman was soon in love again, swooning over Patricia Duff, a striking Democratic fundraiser. Duff initially resisted Perelman's marriage proposal but acquiesced after becoming pregnant Z Charm.