Icahn chides Jefferies’ CEO over ice bucket challenge

Revenge — even the friendly, good-natured kind — is best served cold.

Ice cold.

Jefferies Group CEO Rich Handler learned that lesson Wednesday after he took the ALS ice-bucket challenge — and then dared his longtime friend Carl Icahn to do the same.

Icahn, not able to pass up the change to needle his pal, whom he has hired several times on deals, tweeted “will get back to you shortly on #ALSChallenge, but right now too busy working on BIG deal with another investment banker.”

Many on Wall Street got a chuckle out of the exchange, which started when the usually media-shy Handler posted a YouTube video of himself taking the popular ice-bucket challenge.

Standing in a T-shirt and boxers in his lower Manhattan penthouse, Handler dares Icahn to take the challenge by addressing his wife, “Gail, there are a lot of people who want to throw ice on top of him.”

Handler then breaks bags of ice and dumps them in his Jacuzzi, takes off his shirt and dives head first into the cold tub. He quickly jumps out of the Jacuzzi and says, “Done.”

Handler’s challenge might have been inspired by an earlier Icahn needling.

In 2011, Icahn bought many Jefferies bonds, bailing out the firm which was believed to have much of its cash tied up in illiquid sovereign debt falling fast in value.

In a relatively short amount of time, Icahn made $500 million off his Jefferies bonds, sources said.

At Handler’s invitation, Icahn later served as keynote speaker at a Jefferies conference.

The CEO asked Icahn why he invested in Jefferies when everyone was bailing, saying, “I guess that shows faith in our great company.”

“That’s true,” Icahn answered. “I knew, Richard, that you never would have sold a CDS on Italian debt.”

“How did you know that?”

“I know you don’t understand what a CDS is,” Icahn joked.

The audience laughed for about five minutes, sources said, while Handler looked embarrassed.

Both Jefferies and Icahn declined to comment.