A lot of people blame Dick Fuld for the fall of Lehman Brothers, and would like to let him know as much, should he ever emerge from his hermetically sealed bunker. Many also believe the unceremoniously fired Erin Callan and Joseph Gregory were fall girls and guys thrown in under a bus for reasons no more substantive than being too sexy and too hideous dressers, respectively. This latest news gives us pause before endorsing that theory.
On Friday, September 12, the Wall Street Journal reported that Lehman’s former president, Joe Gregory, who was demoted along with former CFO Erin Callan in a management shake-up in June, was listing his Bridgehampton house on Surfside Drive for $32.5 million. The collapse of Lehman’s stock is a blow to Gregory’s lifestyle. He reportedly used to travel by helicopter to midtown from his $3.5 million mansion in Huntington, which was recently renovated, according to a Sotheby’s broker. According to one source, Gregory’s financial adviser was in negotiations with Lehman’s attorneys at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, working to avert his filing for bankruptcy, after he borrowed money against his Lehman stock to pay for the renovation. “He owes a lot of money for it. They called the margin loan” late last week, the source said.
The Rage Of The Previously Rich [NYMag]
I hear “The Donald” is in line to save Joey, much like he did for Ed McMahon.
Full Stop.
Dick Fuld to the rescue?
Shocked this is the first incedent like this we’ve seen. So many of these execs own restricted stock but choose to margin it and live like they’re sitting on the cash value instead. There will be more of these…
Did he try a refi at Countrywide?
I lost my likely bonus for this year this morning on my way to get some “street breakfast”.
I found a quarter stuck under my shoe, I recouped my loss….
Full stop.
Friends of Angelo?
HA!!! Nice job Joe. You get what you deserve, now if only we can figure out how to whack Jimmy Cayne and Fulds portfolio down, we’ll be in business
What a dick. I hope he goes to Federal Pound Me in the Ass Prison.
Enough with LEHMAN already-or should i say Enough with LEHMQ.PK -
@9– there’s been one thing on leh. calm yourself.
Countrywide sells refried beans?
Please – DB – do some journalism and find Dick for comment
A $32.5 million dollar house must have a heck of an electric bill.
How about we just whack Cayne and Fuld? This is New York after all, damnit.
13 Maybe not. Could simply have some oceanfront footage.
Suck my Fuld Dick, Joe
Borrowing against his restricted stock? If he was smart it was a much more complex transaction with the borrowings only part of the story and the rest an options overlay that resulted in greater diversification. Not that holding the S&P500 has been great lately, but certainly better than a totally concentrated position in LEH.
@17 – the S&P 500 was down a point last week. That’s not bad.
One of the Swiss banks (won’t name which one, but the worse performing of the two) did these loan deals for a few Fortune 500 CEOs and CFOs. Also helping them hedge their restricted stocks by selling them cheap puts.
How else did you think they got investment banking mandates from these Fortune 500 companies?
I believe that Lehman allowed execs to buy puts on their LEH restricted stock, so why would he care about the LEH bankruptcy? Wouldn’t that be a problem for whoever sold him those puts?
@20 he cares about HIS bankruptcy, not LEH’s. “to avert his filing for bankruptcy”
@20 – Did Gregory buy the puts from You & Us Bank?
20/21/22 Boys, boys, lets take it slow: if he had puts, rather then LEH restricted stock, why is he bankrupt?
@23- who knows? but i believe he’s reckless enough with money for it to happen.
I’m confused.Does Joey have two homes on LI? One in Huntington and another in Bridgehampton?
Why would your 5-day/week house be $3.5 mil (not a lot in these parts) and your 2-day/week house be $32.5 mil? Wouldn’t you want to live nicer the majority of the time?
26 This is easy. The BH one is prob on the ocean. The Huntington one isn’t. But its hard to find a place on the ocean that’s commuting distance. As far as the houses themselves, probably similar. Location, location. With ocean being a zinger when it comes to location.
28 That goes on all the time when someones wife has to pay for a few antiques she bought in London, but was it done in size?
#29 It was about 6.50mil pounds all up, can’t remember how many trades they spreaded them into.
Most of that group have left the firm, I replaced one of the ED’s. So hush…………
Silentium est Aurum
@30
self call
This is the selfsame guy who gave his wife $50 million+ in a divorce settlement over 15 years ago? What did she invest in – couldn’t she help a former husband-brother out?
Never enough news on Lb. Please let everyone know how many Barclays winds up picking up. I have a feeling it will be a lot fewer than the 9,000 they are currently talking up.
@31
Not really a self call.
To give you an idea, if I quitted with my then bosses in early 2007, I’d be taking away more than I’d earn as an ED this year, the next, and probably the year after that.
Life will be hard for many of us in the coming years.
Back to my spreadsheet………..
Thirtium est retardedium.
Thirtifortium takes it in the sophoclesium
@33… so you basically don’t care if you get called-out, you dumbass? I wonder if anyone knows you here, Ms. — …
35, that doesn’t make any sense.
yours truly,
34.