She’s been called a “crazy bitch” by a gay pimp named Billy Ash but we say, good for you, Filomena Tobias! Own it, work it. The widow of Seth Tobias, the Circle T founder who drowned in his pool, either by accident or after being drugged by his wife, whichever, has put the couple’s Jupiter, FL home on the market. For the scandal tainted spread, Fil is hoping to score $7.8 million, after buying the place in 2006 for $4.1 million.
Archive for February 2009
Last week Stanford Financial added itself to a short list of firms with a possibly less than legal business model. Yesterday we learned there are a few people who would like a word with founder, Sir Allen Stanford, cricket lover and *maybe* $8 billion fraudster. Here’s the rub, though–authorities have yet to find him, even after sending what were most likely strapping US Marshals into the company’s headquarters in Houston. In the future, it’d probably be helpful to not scare con men into thinking they’re going to be hauled off to the big house, by publicizing their name next to Bernie Madoff’s a week prior to attempting contact and allowing him to escape but whatevs, these are details we can hammer out for next time. For now we need to focus. Where the hell is this guy?
Obviously at this point there are a few blueprints he could be following, from faking his own death via plane crash to faking his own death via M*A*S*H quote. Or maybe he’s just chilling at his home in Antigua, though you have to assume we’ve looked there? And then there’s the most likely answer, which is that he’s shacked up with his cricket bunnies. But, obviously, it could be anything. Get your bet in today.
Bomb Defused Outside Citi HQ In Greece (DJNewswire)
So far they’re considering it part of a movement by Greek anarchists to unsettle the banking system there: “Police in Athens on Wednesday defused a “powerful” makeshift time bomb outside the Greek headquarters of Citigroup Inc. (C), a police source said.
The bomb, consisting of a clock and explosives packed in gas cylinders, was hidden in the rear of a stolen car parked outside the Citibank building in the northern suburb of Kifissia.”
President Obama Set To Unveil Mortgage Plan Today (Reuters)
The lasting effects of this are debatable; on one had we have pure capitalism that allows for people to lose their houses, kill their credit, and ultimately (probably) end up on some social welfare system. On the other, we have a (what could be) a plan to write down mortgages to some more reasonable level, but it’s unclear who would benefit directly from the write-downs. The line in the Reuters article “The aim is to bring mortgage payments to a more affordable range of around 31 percent of borrowers’ incomes” is a bit terrifying: if they look to mark houses as a percentage of current occupants’ incomes they’ll only distort home prices to such a point that any valuations will become completely worthless.
Fun with simple math: As is, the plan (speculatively) calls for $50B in aide to mortgage borrowers. Assuming an adjustment in the neighborhood of $25,000 per house (plus $15,000 in fees/concessions to banks), we come to $40,000 per house over some period of time – which is essentially enough to modify 1.25MM homes.
The Attorney Did It (Bloomberg)
In an almost comical move, the attorney for Stanford disaffirmed everything he had told investigators, effectively withdrawing. Hint for future attorneys/fraudsters: stick to your guns. Whenever possible, follow the sagely advice of HST: “Make the bastard chase you. He will follow.”
Peter Henning, the expert du jour from Detroit’s Wayne Law School had this to say:
“The attorney’s withdrawal is a massive red flag” that “screams fraud, If the SEC hadn’t turned up the heat by that point, it did then.”
Something Like $6 or $12 or $14B. Wait, No, Definitely $14B (NYT)
The car bitches are back asking for more green with GM pushing this round to $14B in aide; I’m a fan of letting Nissan’s “trunk monkey” sodomize the entire lot at this point. In return for the money, GM and Chrysler cowered like 8 year olds promising to clean their room.
Immelt Waives $12MM Bonus (FT)
“Jeff Immelt has waived his right to collect bonus and performance-based pay that would have netted the chief executive more than $12m in cash, people familiar with the company’s plans said.
The decision, approved by GE’s board this month, comes as Mr Immelt confronts a deepening recession that has crimped earnings and prompted its retreat from financial services, which had served as a profit engine for two decades.”
$$$ Would you like to Smash-A-Madoff? [The Deal]
$$$ Unemployed? Here’s where to drink during the day. [Unemployment Party]
$$$ Tycoon’s beauty contest for his five mistresses ends in tragedy – when spurned woman drives him and four rivals off a cliff [Daily Mail]
$$$ So THIS is Why the ABS Market is So Screwed [1-2]
Yes, the S&P 500 shed four and a half percent today. Yes, the Dow dropped three and a quarter percent. Yes, the bailout index dropped almost eleven and a half percent. But this feels like a walk in the park compared to Russia’s trubs. Consider:
Russian stocks fell the most in three months, triggering trading halts in the two largest bourses, as the country cut its economic forecast and oil prices declined.
OAO Surgutneftegaz, Russia’s fourth-biggest oil producer, tumbled 15 percent. OAO Sberbank, the biggest lender, slumped 14 percent, while VTB Group, the second-biggest bank, dropped to a record low.
The 30-stock Micex Index lost 9.4 percent to 645.18 at the close in Moscow, the most since November. The RTS Index also dropped 9.4 percent, to 552.03. Both the Micex Stock Exchange and RTS halted trading for an hour today. The ruble weakened more than 3 percent versus the dollar.
It wasn’t twelve months ago when Russia’s Putin was flying Bears into U.S. airspace, killing dissident journalists with everything from midnight assassination squads to bombs to Polonium-210 and generally scaring everyone again after 20 years. Now he looks like a Madoff sibling.
Russian Stocks Tumble as Economic Outlook Worsens, Oil Declines [Bloomberg]
Related: Commodities Crash Decimates Russian Billionaires [The New York Post]
The scintillating prose from CNN simply completes the picture, don’t you think?
President Obama today signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law. So how will we know if it’s working? What will be the signs? The president and economists say the biggest marker will be an improvement in the jobs picture. Compared to that, CNNMoney reports, getting the law passed was the easy part.
Sir Stanford, cricket y fraud fan, in presumably happier times.
Per CNBC, the sign currently on the sign of the front door of Stanford Financial: “We are temporarily closed. The company is still in operation but under the management of a receiver.”
Earlier: What Are We Going To Do To Him, Harry?
*Wouldn’t want people to make the association, you know how it is.
Bloomberg reports that everyone’s favorite adorable woodland creature has stood her ground! Upon learning that employer Ladenburg Thalmann didn’t really have her back, re: this summer’s imbroglio with BankAtlantic, she has walked out the door and will not be coming back, having already shacked up with another man. Sing it, sister:
Bove, who joined Stamford, Connecticut-based Rochdale Securities LLC this week, was sued in July by BankAtlantic Bancorp, which said he defamed the company by saying it might fail in a report titled “Who is Next?” Bove in August urged a Florida judge to throw out the suit, saying companies shouldn’t be able to muzzle independent analysts by threatening litigation.
“The only reason that I left Ladenburg is because of this lawsuit,” Bove, 68, said today in an interview. “It’s because Ladenburg was moving toward a settlement and I refused to settle because I think this lawsuit has no merit.”
Earlier: BankAtlantic Sues Bové
I’m not suggesting that Dealbreaker readers are easily taken for a ride, but with every other firm turning out to be a scam, the odds are mounting that at least a handful of you are going to be had, sooner or later. One of your brethren, who had the opportunity to be taken by the good people at Fairfield Greenwich, recently made a trip up to the CT branch of the Madoff Movie of the Week, in attempt to assess what was what re: losing everything. His recounting of the Fairfield and Friends’ bedside manner is after the jump. It’s almost hard to believe he’s talking about WASPs, whose sensibilities you’d think would keep them contained within their personal Cheeveresque hells before recounting the hard times they’ve fallen on in front of someone outside the inner circle.
