As previously mentioned, Bernie Madoff’s life in prison is prettay prettay prettay good. Fellow inmates make him delicious wrap sandwiches, he’s in with “the homosexual posse,” and every now and then he gets stoned. The Jouranal checked in with the big man, and reports today that things are still going quite nicely. He plays bocce, chess and checkers. He “walks around the prison with his head held high.” And he’s got respect. “To every con artist, he is the godfather, the don,” says an inmate interviewed earlier this week. One thing that does chap his hide though? The cockbags he used to employ, who got off easy. I mean sure, the scam was his idea, and he did most of the heavy lifting, all of which they benefited from– and he didn’t hear any complaints at the time. Maybe, when he gets out of the joint, he’ll come down there and give them a crew cut.
Mr. Madoff chatted about the fraud’s aftermath, claiming he “carried” employees at Bernard L. Madoff Securities LLC for more than two decades, yet wound up with an astronomical prison sentence. “I guess he felt they turned their back on him,” Mr. White says.
Despite this upset, Berns knows he’s got it going pretty good, and also that he’s hot shit. That’s why fellow inmates have tried to get his signature to sell on eBay, and make bank. That, Mades will not go along with but he will sit for any interested in sketching the man, the myth, the legend in all his regalness.
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Unlike some other hedge funds, NO ONE AT GLENVIEW INSIDER TRADES.
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Pay Czar Poised For Next Wave Of Rulings (Reuters)
Feinberg has said these rulings– coming today!– will likely reduce pay for the 26th to 100th highest-paid employees at the six firms still under his authority.
KKR: Omaha On The Hudson (BusinessWeek)
“He can make any kind of investment he wants,” Kravis says of Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett, the object of his admiration. “And he never has to raise money.” Kravis thinks Berkshire, with its piles of cash and trove of publicly traded shares with which to make acquisitions, is nothing less than “the perfect private equity model.”
Women Hedge Fund Managers Outperform The Men (BW)
Ping Jiang is avenged: “A new study by Hedge Fund Research found that, from January 2000 through May 31, 2009, hedge funds run by women delivered nearly double the investment performance of those managed by men. Female managers produced average annual returns of 9%, versus 5.82% for men.”
Citi’s TARP Payback Could Cheer Institutional Investors (WSJ)
David Trone, an analyst with Macquarie Capital, said “A lot of clients I talk to are afraid” of the government ownership.
Lagarde defends French plan for bonus tax (FT)
It is apparently “fully justified.”
A.I.G. General Counsel Is Set to Depart Amid Talks on Pay (NYT)
Or possibly not at all: “The general counsel, Anastasia D. Kelly, notified the company that she planned to exercise her rights to severance about a week ago, according to people who know her professionally.These acquaintances interpreted her move as tantamount to saying she would leave at the end of the year, although A.I.G.’s executive severance plan allows her longer to separate from service. The plan also allows Ms. Kelly to change her mind.”
I’ve been wondering for some time now whether or not being employed by Madoff Securities when Bernie made his big reveal would be the professional equivalent of pulling a Ping, i.e. taking a piss in an underling’s mouth, i.e. would it make it difficult for you to find future work at a firm that doesn’t have the sort of outside the box thinking that allows for such things. Apparently, the answer is yes, particularly if you share DNA with the Ponz Master. Yes, my pets, it’s true– Mark and Andy Madoff, employees 2 and 3, sons 1 and 2, have been having difficulty finding work. Like they have a bad rap or something. It’s gotten so bad that they might just have to start their own firms. They’ve also started crying in front of other people, as is their wont.
Mark Madoff, who worked at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC for more than 20 years, climbing up the ladder to director of proprietary trading, recently met with at least two Wall Street contacts to get their opinions on whether he could find another job in finance, people familiar with the discussions say. He talked about working on a trading desk or in trading technology, asking one person to keep him in mind if he hears of any openings.
“He’s untouchable in any firm that deals with the public,” says someone who talked to Mr. Madoff. He was near tears while describing his feelings about his father, the person added, asking why anyone would bring his son to work at a crooked investment firm. Another person approached by the 45-year-old Mr. Madoff was told by his lawyer not to respond.
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Well, this is upsetting. We’re now getting word that the annual ritual of Goldman employees stripping down naked and rolling around in the cash-money portion of their bonuses will not be going down as planned this year, at least for top brass, who really deserve it. CNBC reports that the 30-person Goldman Sachs Management Committee (which includes Blankfein, Gary Cohn, David Viniar) will be receiving no cash for 2009. Instead, they’ll get what’s been dubbed “shares at risk,” which can’t be sold for five years, and include clawback provisions as well, in case anyone tries to be a hero.
Tim Geithner is testifying before the the Congressional Oversight Panel this morning, and he’s doing so with a look that would be best described as Angelo Mozilo-lite. We need to know more. I leave it to you:
FYI, there’s only one bank that should be allowed to free itself of the government’s tentacles, and that’s the one lead by the most brilliant CEO in all the land, Ken Lewis. Bové told Melissa Lee the current Citi talks vis-a-vis repayment ‘make no sense.’
What are they doing about it? Letting people know they will walk, that’s what!
Those of us in London IB just got shafted by way of a new supertax on banking bonuses, announced yesterday and effective through April 5 2010 (just to nail this
bonus cycle). Banks (including UK subs of internationals) will pay a 50% tax on the bonus pool *before* the bonus is even paid out; individuals are then subject to the normal 41% or 51% tax (depending on tax bracket). So effectively we’ll receive 25% of our pool. It’s intended as a bonus payment deterrent rather than a revenue generator, and is just Labour pandering to voters ahead of the election. Unfortunately, nobody wanted to stand up and defend bankers’ bonuses,
so it’s gone through.
This is major news here; everybody (even my group head) is talking about either moving to hedge funds, boutiques or buy-side (which aren’t subject to the supertax), or relocating to Zurich, NY or HK. Even if it’s only a one-year tax as currently drafted, people have lost faith in the UK political leadership. The long-term future of the UK is at risk and nobody seems to give a shit as they’re too busy trying to punish bankers for our supposed misdeeds.
Hint: it’s the blush and lipstick. Then Jon Stewart refers to him as ‘Aaron Sorkin.’ Awkward! ARS also tells Stewart that banks need to have the crack pipe pried from their dead lifeless fingers.
Galleon Asia Employees Said to Hold Discussions With Fortress (Bloomberg)
Galleon Group LLC’s Singapore-based staff have held discussions about the possibility of joining Fortress Investment Group LLC following the arrest of their commander in chief.
Governor Paterson Goes To Wall Street With Words Of Thanks (NYT)
Shockingly, Citi chairman Dick Parsons called the gov’s speech, ‘terrific’: “Some people think that if you deny the bonuses, that the money’s coming back to the American taxpayers,” Mr. Paterson said. “It’s actually the other way around: If you deny the bonuses, the money stays in the firms. It’s when you pay out the bonuses that you start to get the huge tax collections that New Yorkers see.”
AIG Units Omit Name And They Excel (NYT)
Ixnay on the iganticgay uckfay upay: “Just months after dropping the telltale “A.I.G.” from its sales brochures, the company has leapfrogged its competitors and reclaimed a title it held for many years before its bailout — the top seller of fixed annuities to bank customers. People buying the annuities in bank branches may be surprised to know they are signing up with A.I.G. The contracts are being offered under the names of two subsidiaries, Western National Life and First SunAmerica. Until last June, they carried the name of A.I.G. Annuity.”
Barclays Denis ‘Secret’ Gains In Lehman Deal (Reuters)
And any insinuation to the contrary is downright insulting. In court papers filed on Wednesday and earlier this week, Barclays said creditors had been made “fully aware” of how the deal was structured before it closed and that a gain Barclays recorded after the sale was not the result of “secret” negotiations to transfer undisclosed assets. “There was nothing ‘secret’ about this contract or its terms,” Barclays said in the court papers.
Ex-Bear fund chiefs face SEC civil case (FT)
Edward Little, an attorney for Ralph Cioffi, is pretty sure the regulators will be sorry: ”We had met with SEC and urged them to drop the case. They’ve not yet responded definitively but we don’t expect that they will. We are not interested in settling and we will go to trial,” Mr Little told the Financial Times.
Jeff Immelt: Era Of Meanness, Greed Drawing to End (Reuters)
Also, sensitivity is in: “I decided that I needed to be a better listener coming out of the crisis,” Immelt said. “I felt like I should have done more to anticipate the radical changes that occurred.”
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$$$ Are Goldman Sachs employees really carrying guns? [WSJ]
$$$ AIG Is Throwing Its Holiday Party In January [BI]
$$$ Why Do Rich, Fat Men Get All the Girls? It’s Science. [The Atlantic]
$$$ Feds Reportedly `Wade In’ As New Stream Capital Denies Problems [HF Implode]
