Seriously. When you can't use a little "adult entertainment," some competitive dwarf tossing, racing lessons, and $50,000 to pay down your client's bachelor party nut in order to drum up a little business, then what the hell is the point of banking? I mean, we might as well work in the commercial banking group of a regional if we give up those perks. Right?
Lazard Capital Markets, the broker dealer, on Thursday agreed to pay more than $2.8m to settle civil charges accusing the firm of letting its employees improperly entertain traders at Fidelity Investments to win business.The SEC on Thursday also charged the three ex-employees and a supervisor for their roles. They have agreed to collectively pay $210,000. The firm and the individuals neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.
Note to aspiring financial journalists: The individual that admits no wrongdoing probably also failed to deny any wrongdoing. Kudos to the FT for spinning that one.
Lazard Capital Markets settles charges [The Financial Times]
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 4:17PM
What's this world coming to when you can't entertain your clients at the strip club?
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 4:17PM
Do midgets bounce?
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 4:19PM
At least the regional commercials are still in business.
Hope you cheats like the perp walk and/or the congressional committees.
Posted by Anal_yst , Oct 31, 2008 4:25PM
@3
What you and your ilk fail to recognize is that there is always $ to be made, as soon as one bubble bursts, we'll be there to make/ride the next one, until it, too, inevitably bursts.
The more things change...
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 4:26PM
EP - your note is incorrect in dinging FT. It is a legal clause used in these agreements. Go ask at ATL - they will explain.
Just because you do not admit wrong doing does not mean you explicitly deny it either. It's legal leverage used in settlements such as this.
Sort of but not really like pleading "no contest"
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 4:34PM
What's the world coming to when you can't call the local escort service to get 2 eastern european sex slaves to put on an anal fisting show to create room to store 8 balls that will be pulled out later to be consumed while talking business?
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 4:34PM
#5 is exactly right.
The "neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing" clause actually legally binds them from ever denying wrongdoing in the matter in the same way that a gag order binds someone from disclosing confidential information.
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 4:35PM
Well deserved. F them.
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 4:43PM
not a weekend has gone by in the 3 years i've been at banking that a trader at my half assed bank hasnt mentioned that a broker is going to spend an exorbent amount of money on them. its just how the biz works.
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 4:44PM
and what about the fido traders...when will they be hauled out tarred and feathered for accepting this entertainment
Posted by ep , Oct 31, 2008 4:48PM
"EP - your note is incorrect in dinging FT."
Who was dinging them?
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 4:48PM
@4 What you and "your ilk" don't understand is the 'times are a changing. It took nearly 22 years from the crash of '29 to get back to about even around 1951. Do you have that much time? I personally don't care but your arrogance blinds you. The serial bubble blower is dead.
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 4:57PM
I miss the good old days when I worked on the trade floor. We had a broker buy our desk a sailboat.
Posted by Anal_yst , Oct 31, 2008 5:01PM
@ 12
I'm not saying we SHOULD repeat history, i'm just saying chances are likely that eventually we'll fall victim to the same hubris thats brought down the ship time after time (myopia, leverage, blind hope, etc).
Also, I can't help myself here, but when you say "it took nearly 22 years from the crash of '29 to get back to about even around 1951," what are you referring to? The S&P? DOW?
Who cares.
Wall Street, despite whatever impression retail investors and observers may be under, does not revolve around the broad market indicies.
$ is made (and lost, of course) more frequently, and in far larger quanties, and in far more varied and esoteric ways than most people can imagine.
I'm not saying it will continue like it has, but what you can absolutely bank on is that "Wall Street" will adapt. Things are, and will change drastically, but down the road you can be sure that there will be the next "CDS", the next this, that, or the other thing.
Such is the nature of man (or some garbage like that).
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 5:19PM
^^^
I dont think it can be said better than that.
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 5:20PM
@14. Yes, I meant the Dow. In regards to human hubris, yes, you're correct. Wall Street does not revolve major indicies, but investor psychology does. We will find another bubble in something else and create a new index. @12
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 6:10PM
easy way to know if you can cut it in PE: most people I know in the industry, myself included, switched to cash back in Aug '07. some played energy til the summer, some just had a short-bias in the intervening period, most just held cash. til now. though most still know there's an onslaught of bad news to come (hello unemployment, Alt-As, ARMs, further chindia retrenchement...)
Housing topped in Q2 '06, which everyone (in high-finance/econ) knew buoyed the broader economy; sub-prime became a layman's fact by summer; econ gowth was de minimis going-forward; dollar's precipitous fall ($1.60?!); all-time equity highs; and then early in the year we saw the fractures with KKR, et al.
What's next: nov. may provide a nice diving board to take things down... after that I'm cash
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 6:21PM
After you "admit to no wrongdoing" don't go bragging...or even act like.... you screwed the authorities on th other side of the deal. That's a fast way to you-know-what.
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 6:26PM
Back in the good old pre-Enron days in Houston, I knew of a trader who drove a Porshe leased by one of his brokers. He also had in his possession an Amex Card that belonged to the broker's firm.
When the president of "E____________", his employer, found out about it, the poop hit the fan. Broker was boxed for a year and doofus was out of work. His excuse, "Everyone else who trades is doing it!!!"
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 8:11PM
These guys had it coming for a long time. They were real dicks. It's too bad they didn't get any jail time. Fuck them twice.
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 9:56PM
Fidelity traders are the biggest takers on the street
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 9:58PM
what's up with the dwarf tossing ???
is that fun to watch , or is it just something that demented Buyside traders need for their daily fix of stealing
Posted by Phobos , Oct 31, 2008 10:04PM
@5, &al.
"no contest" is "nolo contendere", translated, literally. As a legal stance it means "I choose not to stand against you" or "I'm at the will of the court".
That said, "Neither admit nor deny" is an SEC filing that means "we'll accept the terms by which this agreement was reached, but we do so without further implications of guilt." Or, effectively, I understand that the terms of *whatever* settlement was reached are reasonable, and I understand the need to avoid court, given the circumstances. However, In pleading such to the SEC, they in no way remit their innocence, or the positioning by which to defend their innocence.
Cheers, fuckers!
Posted by StupidEquityGuy , Oct 31, 2008 10:09PM
Phobos, its to early on a Friday night to start Latin lessons again...
Its time to go find some fun and scare some investors or something...
Peace,
~SEG
Posted by Phobos , Oct 31, 2008 10:36PM
I'm not looking to defend latin, SEG, but it seems fucking retarded that kids don't take it anymore. "I am know english good: and for me be good talker, I am find job now!"
Moreover, stay off EP unless 1) you have have pictures of COX naked (share?) or 2) you can keep the fuck up.
I love the `drunken slut holiday` that this is.
Posted by Phobos , Oct 31, 2008 10:47PM
Wait, I've been busy this week, who the fuck is "William Richards"?
Posted by guest , Oct 31, 2008 10:51PM
another bank failure!
http://www.marketwarnings.com/2008/10/fdic-regulators-shut-down-freedom-bank.html
Posted by StupidEquityGuy , Nov 01, 2008 12:03AM
William Richards is the new and improved Danny Boy... We had the technology, so we rebuilt him... better then before... and with out the annoying market dumb down comments...
Lets give Sir William a chance... he at least is not taking himself to serious with his humor...
oh and I am not on EP... I don't think that Mrs. Trophy would approve...
Best,
~SEG
Posted by guest , Nov 01, 2008 3:04AM
Phobos did you get another gig? If so what?
SPODE
Posted by guest , Nov 01, 2008 3:37PM
look at this news: Obama aunt evades deportation to Africa and lives on public dole
http://endofesq.com/?p=455
Posted by guest , Nov 01, 2008 3:53PM
That is why I never give my money to be managed by crooks (even fidelity investments have human crooks).
I managed it myself, and earn for myself the 6% per annum I would have paid them to manage my money with the risk of losing some of it.
6% on a 2M retirement account is 120K.
check the blogger below. he addresses how to deal with funds such as fidelity (you take their money rather than them taking your money).
http://financialtraders.blogspot.com/2008/10/retirement-account-financials-eft-xlf.html
Posted by Phobos , Nov 01, 2008 9:04PM
@SPODE
Yeah, I got another gig. It's just a bridge job, out of field, until I go back to school next fall.