N.Y. Man Spends $65K, Gets 250 Dates, Blames Matchmakers

By Lauren Sher

Credit: Dennis Clark / Polaris

A 47-year-old former Wall Street trader who said he spent over $65,000 on professional matchmaking services over the past 12 years in a dead-end quest to find a wife, and publicly slammed the matchmakers, is now coming under fire.

One of the matchmakers Larry Greenfield used is pushing back, saying the multimillionaire from Long Island, N.Y., was “too picky” and wanted women who were simply out of his league.

The New York Post reported Monday that Greenfield, who retired from Opus Trading in Oct. 2011, used six different matchmaking services and went on 250 dates with women in the last 12 years, but still hasn’t found a wife. His ideal woman is attractive, thin, Jewish and has a sense of humor, according to The Post, but is not an “alpha” who’s career-obsessed. He wants someone to start a family with.

Greenfield, who could not be reached for comment, reportedly deemed all of the women he dated unsatisfactory, calling the matchmaking services a “rip-off” that over promised and under delivered.

“You pay them up front and they don’t provide a service. They tell you how wonderful you are, whatever you want to hear,” Greenfield told The Post.

Long Island-based matchmaker Maureen Tara Nelson of Maureen Tara Nelson Private Matchmaking Inc., who worked with Greenfield in 2009, said he was one of her “pickiest client ever.”

“It was, ‘She was too this. She was too that. I didn’t feel the chemistry,’” Nelson recalled.

The professional matchmaker said she set him up with a handful of women, all of whom  fit his criteria, but he was “totally unrealistic” and called a beautiful woman “terrible.”

“You can’t say just because you have money that you deserve someone beautiful. I don’t have gold-diggers in my program. Women are financially stable as well,” Nelson said. “The girl that he said was terrible is married to a pharmacist right now.”

Nelson said upon meeting Greenfield she advised him to choose a more substantial program that included more matches, meet-and-greet parties and coaching, but he insisted on a less-expensive program.

After around five matches, Nelson said Greenfield approached her with an unconventional proposal: instead of paying upfront for her services as other clients did, he offered to pay $20,000 if Nelson introduced him to the woman he would marry. Nelson provided ABC News with a letter reportedly delivered to her by Greenfield in March 2009.

“I accepted that and worked for six months trying to do it this way,” Nelson said. “I really wanted to help him …. but… he was too picky. After six months, I said I can’t do this.”

“What we all did was try to help him and he’s taking the easy way out blaming us. That’s just not right,” she added.

Nelson said she’d be willing to work with Greenfield again — only if he choose the appropriate program this time around — her Elite package, which would cost him $4,995.

Matchmaker Janis Spindel of Serious Matchmaking , who has spoken with Greenfield about what he’s looking for in a wife but hasn’t formally become his matchmaker, said he’s a “great guy” that’s no pickier than any other men out there.

“Men are picky. It’s in their DNA. They want the four B’s — beauty, brains, body and balance,” Spindel said, adding Greenfield is no different. “Larry wants a normal girl who’s in her thirties who wants to be his wife, who will be a sweet and loving wife and mom. …. I told him I will not take money from him until I have her.”