And with the fare hike, he fo sho won’t be able to swing it! Peter Madoff, brother and colleague of Bernie was denied an appeal to not have his assets frozen today, though god love this family, it wasn’t for a lack of trying. According to Pedro’s lawyer Charles Spada, Ponzi Boy’s bro “can’t spend a dime, can’t take a subway ride, can’t buy a loaf of bread, can’t [cough, cough] pay his attorneys…I don’t know that he can afford a MetroCard.” Hopefully he’ll be able to rely on the kindness of sister-in-law Ruth, who, for now, can still cover the Jarlsberg, home in Palm Beach, and costume jewels.
Archive for March 2009
When John Mack was almost lured into enough of a false sense of security (or perhaps a conspiracy) to nearly disclose his plans to raise new equity* and pay back TARP money by CNBC’s Erin Burnett we thought it might be curtains for the guy. We are also not sure how he could have lived with himself after making such a slip it in front of Lloyd’s of Goldman. Our Bess Levin was (virtually) there to capture the moment:
Burnett: Let’s talk TARP…you’ve said you want to return it after the stress test, as early as April…do you still want to do that?
Blankfein: We didn’t say shit. TARP has never been permanent capital…we will return it, at some point, with interest.
Burnett: How ’bout you, Stanley?
Mack: We’re in the same position…we can pay it back…we’ll do it if our regulator wants us to.
Burnett: Okay, more about TARP. If you give the money back, and something catastrophic happens again, and you need the money will you–
Mack: Erin, stop. This was not what the meeting was about. We talked about what are we going to do, how are we going to do it, what are the issues.
Burnett: Your stock is high again…are you going to raise equity?
Blankfein: We’ll be talking to our regulators.
Mack: I need to talk to my board first. As much as I like CNBC, I’m really not going to go there.
Yes, yes. Everything is fine. And how dare you ask that question, you little minx. You’ll never work in this town again! (Phew, that was close). Oh, wait:
Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer John J. Mack, who will run the largest broker-dealer when the acquisition of Smith Barney from Citigroup Inc. is completed later this year, told employees in a nationwide conference call yesterday that 2009 will be “a difficult year,” mostly because of so many toxic debts that have yet to be cleansed from the bank’s holdings. Among the 529 financial institutions that received loans from American taxpayers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley isn’t yet prepared to pay back the $10 billion it received from the U.S. Treasury in October.
Earlier: Coffee Klatsch With Mack and Blankfein
Mack Warns Morgan Stanley of ‘Difficult Year’ in 2009 [Bloomberg]
* Not that there are now or will be any such plans or that such plans are or are not being considered or that said plans exist or could ever be said to have existed.
And thank god for that, otherwise Time would be looking at the business end of a serious hissyfit that I’m sure we don’t have to tell you would escalate in a back alley assault. After nominating Gaspo for its list of the 100 most influential people of the year, and suggesting that a reason one wouldn’t want to vote for C to the G was that he once prognosticated that AIG would never go bankrupt, the mag has correct the error (yesterday Chaz told Dealbreaker, “The only thing I ever said, in December 2007, was that they had enough capital to survive at that point,” and demanded a correction and cover story apology).
Sayeth The Man Without Sleeves: “When alerted, they said they would investigate and then
changed it. They are stand up people. Vote for Chazzy today.”
Unless you have been sleeping under a rock for some extended period of time, you will remember that Porsche is not just a German automobile manufacturer, but also a “fiendishly clever,” hedge fund in its own right. Scant surprise then that the Teutonic threat is realized.
Net profit in the first-half ended Jan. 31 jumped to €5.55 billion ($7.33 billion) from €1.26 billion in the same period the previous year. Pretax profit climbed to €7.34 billion from €1.66 billion. The increase stemmed largely from cash-settled option transactions in VW shares. Income from these transactions rose to €6.84 billion from €850 million a year earlier.
As you might remember, accusations of share manipulation began to fly almost immediately after the incident, as Germany’s disclosure laws did not require Porsche to reveal positions in VW that were suggestive of a takeover. Now, even that hitch is clear.
Some hedge funds, which stood to face billions of dollars in losses, accused Porsche of misleading them about its intent to gain full control of VW. On Oct. 29, BaFin, Germany’s securities regulator, said it opened a formal investigation into VW’s share-price movements for signs of market manipulation.
However, BaFin said Tuesday it has halted its probe. “We didn’t find any indications for a share manipulation,” a BaFin spokeswoman said.
Related: Many Lamentations Heard From Hedge Funds
In Germany There Is No Age Of Consent With Cash Settled Options
From the front lines of a massacre:
I am a second year analyst in Private Wealth Management who just found out from my office’s Business Unit Manager that all second year analysts will have to wait until December, six months after their two years are up, to find out if they will get a bonus. Second year analysts are usually given something on their way out.
And yet…
Related.
Chin up, mon chichis. You’ll always be welcome at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone (for now).
SOHO House no longer wants to be a place where bankers flock to drink and flirt. Sources told Page Six several financial types, already hit by the economy, had their egos slammed when they were notified by the club that their membership would not be renewed as it was returning to its “artsy” roots. Soho House US operations director Mark Somen told us, “We recently celebrated our fifth anniversary and want to make sure we are staying true to our creative roots.
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