In yet another swift victory for justice and credibility in the US legal system, former AIG chairman Hank Greenberg, accused of running off with $4.3 billion in AIG stock which was supposed to be used for executive retirement accounts, got a free pass from a federal jury today. The jury was evidently not swayed with minor appearances of impropriety such as Greenberg flying stock certificates to Bermuda in private jet to deposit them in an off-shore account. Should Fed. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff not introduce a shred of decency into this process and reverse the jury’s decision in his final ruling, the Hank Greenberg GFY AIG party will go on as scheduled on a pink sand beach later this summer.
Jury Finds Against A.I.G. in Greenberg Case [NYT]
Archive for July 2009
Apparently last year’s failed witch hunt to “prove” that hedge funds were behind $150 barrels of oil has done little to change the CFTC’s mind about where spikes in commodity prices come from. In addition to pondering whether or not to set position limits on commodity futures contracts, the CFTC will now break down hedge fund positions on its weekly Commitments of Traders report. The CFTC will now have the transparency and data it so desperately wants so the world can see that it can’t prove its own conspiracy theory.
U.S. regulator to identify hedge fund bets in commods [Reuters]
Personally, we don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, but for the more narrow-minded individuals in the group, who have perhaps suffered at the hands of the Attorney General, whether during a harrowing interrogation process that resulted in months of night terrors (you can still hear him on the other side of the wall, can’t you, Ken?) or a deeply uncomfortable subway ride wherein Andy-boy blamed the packed car for some cuppage of ass, take solace. No matter what he did to you, know that when Andrew Cuomo goes home, he goes home to a woman who voluntarily and without prompting describes herself as a shemale. Will be interesting to see what the good people at NAMBLA have to say about this.
Related: Andrew Cuomo’s NAMBLA Connection
Andrew Cuomo’s Girlfriend Is A Drag Queen [Daily Intel]
The state of Texas is one step closer to overtaking Bernie and other NY-based Ponzsters in the fraud league tables. Following the major league effort of Sir Allen, three Dallas-area businessmen are accused of running a $485 million Ponzi scheme focused on the oil and gas industry through a company called Provident Royalties LLC which promised Madoff-sized returns of up to 18%. Close to 8,000 investors believed these commodity wizards couldn’t miss.
3 Dallas businessmen accused of running $485 million Ponzi scheme [Dallas Morning News]
Supposedly numbers for first year HY’s are as follows:
Top tier: 40-45k (confirmed for M&A, media, healthcare)
Mid tier: 30k (confirmed for M&A, healthcare, FIG)
Bottom tier: 20-25k (rumored)
Related: Second Tier, First Year Rainmakers Pulling $42k Bonuses At Citi
Having licked his wounds from last year’s billion dollar wrong-way bet on the price of oil, T. Boone Pickens has already suffered a set back in his foray into wind farming. The oilman’s centerpiece for getting the US off its foreign oil addiction was supposed to be the construction of the world’s largest wind farm in Texas. However, like most projects utilizing the shoot-fire-aim methodology, the sobering constraints of reality (lack of transmission lines in this case) have made T. Boone re-think his wind empire. Somehow lost on TBP was the fact that after generations of getting fat and happy on foreign oil, this country is a tad light on the infrastructure necessary to make a real change in energy sources. Next stop on the TBP green energy train, harnessing the power of positive thought.
Pickens Drops Plan for Largest Wind Farm [NYT]
Yesterday afternoon, Matthew Goldstein suggested there was a possibility that Twinkle Toes Aleynikov had felt he’d been stiffed by Goldman re: compensation (Serge was paid $400,000 as a computer programmer last year), supplemental income from dancing apparently not covering the bills. That’s presumably why he left 85 Broad to go work for Teza Technologies, which was set to throw $1.2 million his way before he ran in to some legal issues and was suspended without pay. Rob Cox at BreakingViews is now thinking that, while Teza probably (though not definitely) didn’t explicitly tell ‘Nikov his take-home was getting tripled with the expectation he’d show up for the first day of work having ripped off his former employer, there might’ve been some nodding and winking to that effect. If not the secret codes than something, anything from the building that the start-up could’ve gotten some mileage out of, be it GS pens or Lloyd Blankfein’s essence, sucked out by Serge during one dangerous (but worth it) mission to the men’s room. And if you think about it, instead of getting their panties in a bunch over a coupla jacked megabytes of data, the Masters o’ the U should be looking at this whole thing as a source of pride. Everybody wants a piece of their shit.
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A Goldman Education [BreakingViews]
The latest issue of Vanity Fair checks out what’s been a’ poppin’ over in Cambridge, i.e. Ivy League ass bleeding. The endowment has lost $11 billion (and counting), a few professors have been laid off, some traitorous shrews are thinking the unthinkable (“there is a real chance that Harvard will no longer be considered the best there is”), and, worst of all, dining services will no longer be providing the Larry Summers Special (bacon, egg ‘n cheese, banana split and a diet Coke). Really, the only thing the Harvard has going for it is the rage of one HBS professor but he’s only one man and he’s only got so much scalding hot coffee at his disposal. And yet. Some people don’t think the institution truly gets it. They know the facts but the facts haven’t truly penetrated. Sounds like a job for a hedge fund manager who, if we were talking about his own fund, would be dictating lines to his secretary a la “We are all good in the hood, this isn’t our problem, it’s the market’s problem,” but is more than happy to fuck someone else up with a little dose of truth.
If Harvard were a serious business facing a liquidity crisis, it would have made drastic changes as its endowment tanked: say, axing senior employees, shuttering departments, and selling real estate. But elite universities don’t like shaking things up. “None of these schools has the ability to cut expenses fast enough” is how a hedge-fund manager who counts Harvard among his investors describes the situation. VF writer Nina Munk asked the hedge fund manager to look at Harvard’s finances and assess the extent to which its endowment will be able to keep pace with its immovable costs. The hedge fund manager’s conclusion: “They are completely fucked.”
Behind bars, obviously, but if you thought Big B was just going to let himself get assigned to any old dump, think again. Ponzi Boy has hired Herb Hoelter, CEO of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA) broker/prison consultant to help him land in the best possible joint (Hoelter’s previous clients include Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken so he knows what he’s doing here). Due to 150 year sentence Mades is not eligible for any of the Club Feds but if he and Herb play their cards right he could score a stay in some sort of “Camp Cupcake” or otherwise comfy home. Though the duo is shooting for a deluxe suite, not unlike the penthouse on East 64th, mostly anywhere will be preferable to the Ponzier’s current situation:
“Anywhere he goes is likely to be better than where he is now, unless they throw him into the Supermax… He will be able to get exercise. He will be able to do something that makes him productive. He may be able to tutor other inmates.”
Meanwhile, Ruth remains homeless (and, unlike some people, without access to a gym). If anyone’s got any leads on a sublet (1 br desired, studio okay), let her know.
Madoff Hires Consultant To Shop For Best Prison [Daily Finance via Cityfile]
For those who are currently engaged in the Craigslist California IOU free-for-all, your window of opportunity may already be running out. Lacking either the foresight or care to think one step ahead, regulators are now mulling over whether or not the IOUs qualify as muni securities- a decision which could force the new toxic asset traders to either close down or register with the SEC. Assuming the wheeling and dealing in IOUs is left to the major players, and other financially strapped states follow CA’s lead and issue their own paper promises, it’s only a matter of time before the first TALF eligible, AAA-rated IOU tranches are ready for retail investors.
Today in Bear Stearns alums:
* Ace Greenberg’s grand-dog Bagel remains missing, feared dead
* Warren Spector, who got fired for taking too many days off by Mr. Out of the Office himself, has sold his Greenwich Village co-op for $8 million
* Jimmy Cayne, very much desperate at this point, still looking to unload his 6,000 square foot grow house– make him an offer
