East Hampton may be home to some of the richest people around, but the town itself is on the verge of bankruptcy. It's now facing an $18 million deficit by the end of the year, partly because most of the officials responsible for managing the town's finances over the past few years have turned out to be crooks. (In what is becoming a tradition of sorts, another local official was arrested this week—he served as budget officer until recently—and was charged with seven felonies.)

• Frank Cassou—the general counsel and executive VP of NextWave Wireless who found himself in the hot seat when shares of the company plummeted and a wave of shareholder lawsuits followed—has gone into contract to sell his 18-foot-wide townhouse at 57 East 78th Street. The 4,600-square-foot manse, which he and his wife Gabrielle bought for $5.45 million in 2003, has been on the market for $15 million since February. [Cityfile, Sotheby's]
• A 2,890-square-foot penthouse at 285 Lafayette Street, which was acquired in 1999 by a trust in the names of Johnson & Johnson heirs Joyce Johnson and John Johnson III, has taken a $2 million haircut. The three-bedroom apartment, which is located next door to a larger penthouse that Ian Schrager is currently selling, is now priced at $10 million. [Cityfile, Real Deal, BHS]

Ron Perelman already has a hand in the restaurant business: He's an investor in Graydon Carter's Monkey Bar and he also happens to own the building that houses Carter's Waverly Inn. But he has a new venture in the works! He's reopening the Blue Parrot, the margarita bar/restaurant in East Hampton that's been closed since 2006. Ralph Lauren had originally planned to take over the space; when his plans fell through, Perelman swooped in. And he's assembled quite the team to give the venue another lease on life.

• Kelly Killoren Bensimon isn't having much luck unloading her 2,800-square-foot home in East Hampton, which she put on the market for $14.5 million two years ago and was most recently offering for $10.9 million. The Further Lane estate has now been taken off the market, although Bensimon hasn't given up hope on finding someone willing to pay $295,000 to rent it for the summer season. [NYP, DM]
• Raef LaFrentz, a power forward for the Portland Trail Blazers, has picked up a New York pad. LaFrentz paid $1.7 million for a two-bedroom condo in the Liberty Lofts building on West 64th Street. [Cityfile]

• The 25-foot-wide townhouse at 11 East 82nd Street, which was purchased up by billionaire Ron Perelman as a home for one of his executives back in 1996 and was later bought by private investor Keith Gollust, has been reduced for a second time since hitting the market in February 2008 for $40 million. Most recently priced at $35 million, the limestone manse can now be yours for a mere $29.5 million. [Cityfile, Sotheby's]
• British architect Lord Norman Foster and his wife, Elena, paid $7.2 million for a 2,725-square-foot co-op at 912 Fifth Avenue. [NYO]

It seems the East Hampton town board has followed through on its threat to sue Ron Baron, the dune-destroying billionaire who installed an 800-foot concrete barrier on his 40-acre Further Lane property last year and has been battling the local authorities ever since. The Post reports that Baron has been ordered to appear in court on March 16th, where he'll face eight code violations for his failure to secure the proper permits and for construction work that led to the destruction of several 3,000-year-old dunes. Baron could face four years in jail if he's ultimately convicted. But we doubt Baron will get to that point. Even if he is someone who once likened his battle to get gay men to stop having sex on the stretch of beach in front of his house to the war in Vietnam.

• Goldman Sachs co-president Jon Winkelried (left) has cut the price of his waterfront mansion in Nantucket. Originally purchased for $7 million in 1999, Winkelried put the home on the market for $55 million in October 2008. He's now lowered the price to $38.5 million. [WSJ]
• A. Robert Towbin, a managing director at Stephens and the former co-chairman of C.E. Unterberg, Towbin, has sold his 2.5-acre property on West End Road in East Hampton for $26.5 million. That's $11 million less than what it was first listed for back in mid-2007. [WSJ]
• Brooke Astor's former duplex at 778 Park, which has yet to sell despite a substantial price cut—it was first listed at $46 million before the price was reduced to $34 million in October—has been pulled off the market. The listing should resurface with Kirk Henckels as the new broker. [NYO, Curbed]

It's been nearly two months since the town of East Hampton first began its crusade against Ron Baron, the investor accused of razing the 3,000-year-old dunes on his 40-acre beachfront property without obtaining the proper permits in advance. At the time, East Hampton threatened Baron with a $500-a-day fine until the problem was resolved and the "habitat was restored." Unfortunately, it turns out that $500 a day doesn't go very far when you're trying to scare a billionaire into submission.

How do you get half of the Hamptons to hate you instantly? Destroying the 3,000-year-old sand dunes on your property is a good way to start. Billionaire fund manager Ron Baron now stands accused of razing part of the beachfront property he purchased in May 2007 when he spent a record $103 million for 40 acres of prime East Hampton real estate. Baron has since constructed a 30,000-square-foot mansion on a nearby parcel, but it was the recent destruction of the historic dunes near his house that now has environmental groups up in arms.

You may recall that back in July, social scenester Arden Wohl was arrested in East Hampton after she allegedly stole a few items from the Ralph Lauren outpost in East Hampton and printed words "Ralph Lipshits" [sic] in red lipstick on the exterior of the store. She was given a court date of August 28 to answer for her crimes, which of course was last week. So what happened to the headband-obsessed party-goer and filmmaker? Will she spend the next year in jail, the maximum sentence for such unspeakable acts? The jury is still out, so to speak! We checked in with the Suffolk County district attorney's office, and a spokesperson tells us that the case was adjourned, and another date will be set so that Arden can finally face the music in village court. It's very doubtful she'll have to do any hard time, though; the worst part may be that now the summer season is over, she'll have to make a special trip to the East End later this fall to answer the charges. Now that would be a total pain, wouldn't it?

• Real estate developer Christopher Jeffries, whose Millennium Partners turned the St. Moritz on Central Park South into a Ritz-Carlton with 277 rooms and 11 full-floor condos, has sold his 29th floor, 5,954-square-foot apartment in the building for $28.5 million. [Cityfile]

East Hampton is broke, apparently: "The town is likely to end the year with a $12 million deficit and in recent weeks, it had only $900 in its bank account and barely made its payroll." [NYP]

• Southampton Press, owned by entirely nutty Joseph Louchheim, begets East Hampton Press; East Hampton Star not thrilled. We say: If there are two places to read crime reports about dumb girls named Amy Kline who miss the last train back to the city and call the police, who then actually call and get them a bus back to town instead of telling them to sleep on the street, we're thrilled. [NYT]
  

Half of us finally gave in, sucked it up, and headed out to East Hampton this past weekend. (Really, we went for the 7 different Calypso storefronts — the block on Broome street simply isn't enough!) We deflowered ourselves only because of Manhattan's insufferable heat; the major lure of this eastward excursion was an absurd amount of time on the beach, but only with the promise that we would not, under any circumstances, be forced to enter any sort of bar with the words "jet," "star," or "toni" in its name. Our demands were thus met and, dare we say, we enjoyed ourselves.