Another example of genius in reverse at a hedge fund came to light this morning, as the New York Post reported that D.B. Zwirn & Co, a Manhattan based $5 billiion loan-trading hedge fund, had held conference calls with investors to discuss internal financial controls. Apparently, a former finance executive with the fund “inappropriately expensed ‘items’”—although the fund declined to say what the items—cough, strippers*, cough—in question were.
*Yeah. That’s completely without basis. But we can always hope, right?
Hedge Fund Loot Riddle [New York Post]
Posted by Howard Babel , Oct 31, 2006 1:43PM
Are you telling me that strippers aren't and appropriate expense in finance?
Suddenly I like my industry more.
Posted by AJ , Oct 31, 2006 2:13PM
f*cking spitzer.... grumble.... grumble.... I wish I was in banking in the 80s when strippers were an appropriate expense
Posted by , Oct 31, 2006 3:09PM
Ahh, to be a baron. To trade on insider information, when the press used to worry about YOUR public image, having a mistress on the side was what society men did, making deals while swilling on brandy and smoking a fat Churchill, charging huge fees for little actaul work, having the government do your bidding a la Harriman with United Fruit, when widows and orphans went long GM in a concentrated position, and not having to worry about self serving regulators. Ahh those were the days.
Posted by Mike Milkin' , Oct 31, 2006 9:29PM
What a moron. Buysiders don't expense strippers. Buysiders tell brokers that they do a lot of business with to take them to the strip club and then the sales weasel has to expense it. Harder to do now since Fidelity pi**ed in the soup with the dwarf tossing/coke snorting/hookers hooking scandal that decimated the trading desk, but still very doable.