No friends of Ken Lewis
In its storied history, Bank of America has accidentally foreclosed on a few houses it wasn’t supposed to. There are a lot of deadbeats out there and really no good centralized system for keeping track of whose homes are supposed to padlocked and whose aren’t. Whatever, it’s bound to happen. Not really something we can hold against them. What we can shame those fuckers for, however, is, for instance, foreclosing on someone who actually wasn’t in default and then confiscating his/her beloved parrot. Except that wasn’t just a for instance, ladies, Bank of America really did that.
Angela Iannelli, 46 years old, alleged in a lawsuit Monday that the October incident—which separated her from her 11-year-old parrot for more than a week—caused so much “emotional distress” that she needed a prescription medication for anxiety.
A Bank of America spokesman said Wednesday a bank employee erroneously believed the house was vacant and sent the contractor there with instructions to install a new lock and otherwise “secure” the property. The bank spokesman said those instructions were inappropriate because Ms. Iannelli wasn’t in default and the house wasn’t vacant.
But maybe we’re being too hard on BofA? Maybe they took full credit for the mistake, apologized profusely and had Ken Lewis personally drive out to Ms. Iannelli’s house to bring her back her bird? Continue reading »
Money Never Sleeps, which the lot of you had probably already cleared your schedules to see April 23, has had its premier postponed to September 24. It’s gonna be another 6 long, lonely months before we see those loafers on the big screen. On the bright side, rather than work the press circuit, ShiLa will be able to devote his time to the old online brokerage account, and to working on the LaBeouf Capital prospectus. [Variety via BI]
Those were the days.
Pali Capital said good night last month after former Bear Stearns finance chief Samuel Molinaro terminated talks to buy the place. Today Reuters has a piece on co-founder and chief executive, Bradley Reifler, who former employees and clients blame for the company’s demise, claiming his “penchant for litigation helped destroy the bank he spent so many years building” (over the last ten years Reifler has apparently launched “dozens” of lawsuits against people and other companies). Those who used to work for the guy also seem to believe the fact that he could be a dick played a part in the firm’s downfall (“He could make your life miserable,” another former employee said. “He appointed himself head of everything, including compliance, and everyone reported to him,” he said, adding, “If you crossed him, you didn’t get a bonus”). And it is true that a hundred or so employees who left in the last year, which was cited as a “major reason” why Molinaro backed out of the deal. Many also believed Reifler spent too much money, and that the office and the firm in general “reeked of excess.” It’s all very sad! Reifler has apparently announced (on Twitter…) that he’ll be “launching a new firm with ‘non-criminal’ partners” but things will never be the same. Pali Poker Nights, which featured dancers from the Rockettes and the Knicks? Those are done and while everyone’s probably too angry to appreciate how good they had it, let us take two to remind you. Via some phenomenal pictures of PPNs past. Continue reading »
Dreaming Big
A few weeks ago, we had a little chat about James Glover, the RBSGC managing director who, being pretty ticked about the subpar compensation situation for the past few years, decided to help himself to a bonus (he did so by having junior employees submit wires that would normally go to a counterparty to pay for trades, and then approving them to, instead, go to his personal account). Unfortunately, G-Love’s genius plan, which went on for months, was found by the damn chippies running the place and their infernal “internal controls.” They escorted him out of the building and turned the matter over to “law enforcement.” A lot of people back at the ranch were pretty miffed about what happened, especially on the legacy Greenwich Capital side (where The Glove worked for many years), because they apparently felt like it gave the RBS people ammo to throw it back in their faces, and somehow hurt the argument that “GC employees are better than everyone else” at the palace on I-95. But they may have been judging too harshly! It turns out Jimbo had a really good reason for “stealing” the money (if you want to put that sheen on it). Beyond the fact that he was miffed about the bank taking away cash bonuses last year, Glover had just built a nine-bedroom, five-bath ski house in Windham, NY (we’d previously been told it was Vermont), which he couldn’t *exactly* really afford (but if one of you can, it’s now on the market for $1.1 million). The other reason G-Love made it rain without permission was that he had a dream. A dream to build ski houses for everyone. Greenwich Time reports:
Many also knew about [Glover's] dream to build beautiful luxury mountain homes in his favorite ski town, Windham, N.Y. Glover has a second home he shares with his sister, Janet Glover, in Windham. But just three weeks ago, after his separation from RBS, he put the home up for sale. A Windham neighbor told Greenwich Time they were surprised he was going to sell the house considering he just finished an addition. The nine-bedroom, five-bath ski house is appraised for around $800k and listed at $1.1 million. Glover’s neighbor and local Realtor, Carol Shaw, told Greenwich Time she thinks he’s priced it to sell right away. You see, in June 2008 Glover took out a very large building loan and security agreement against the house and another piece of land in Windham from Port Chester-based USA Bank. Building loans are typically due in 18 months to two years and the pressure to pay this one off was mounting. If not paid off on time, the Glovers could risk losing their home and other Windham real estate investment. Glover had partnered up with Thomas Poelker, a builder in the upstate New York resort community, to develop a luxury subdivision near the Windham ski resort. According to people familiar with the transaction they bought the undeveloped 75 acres of land for around $1 million a few years ago. It was subdivided into 9 lots, a road was built into the area, and one 10,000 square foot spec house is under construction.
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Alan Fishman, the limo driver-cum-hedge fund manager president who admitted last year to screwing AR Capital investors just a little bit, has pleaded guilty to fraud (Fishman had caught the investing bug while driving around a bunch of investment bankers and lawyers, and decided one day to “take a crack at his customers’ game”). Continue reading »
You're just 9 months and one set of breast pumps away from this.
Trish Regan’s been look pretty good lately, no? Especially for a woman who just gave birth a few months ago? I’m sure you’ve noticed, as has John Carney, who needed to know more. The crack journalist did some digging and found out that you, too, can look like this, by incorporating a few simple tricks into your diet: cut out food, and breast feed twins (it burns a ton of calories and keeps you honest). Regan has lost over 45 pounds on the plan. Tomorrow, we reveal how Kudlow maintains his 30-inch waistline. You’re not gonna wanna miss this.
And the guy behind me goes, 'Hey hon, don't forget the coffee!'
Tomorrow, Forbes will release its annual list of the richest billionaires in the world. Who will take the number one and two spots? The CNBC brain trust has crunched some numbers and is guessing it’ll be Gates, followed by Buffett. This is all pretty upsetting to everyone in the Oracle’s camp, as it would mark the second year in a row WB came in second place. Continue reading »
Apparently he’d had it with the commission’s freaky ass rules. Publicly, he’s talking about the ones relating to short selling, though odds are he wasn’t thrilled about this shit, either.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s top economist is leaving the agency after Chairman Mary Schapiro merged his office with another and passed short- selling rules that hedge funds said ignored financial analysis.
James Overdahl, whose office reviews potential regulations to determine whether benefits outweigh costs, said in an e-mail today that he will step down March 31 to join NERA Economic Consulting. He joined the SEC in 2007 from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where he also served as the top economist.
Some of the most respected members of society let Twizzlers dangle from their mouths. Fact.
So, Lenny Dykstra has asked a judge to dismiss his bankruptcy case. Why? Nails has a reason.
“Bottom line, you don’t belong in bankruptcy when you have $100 million in assets,” Dykstra said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
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The only way you're getting this money is through me.
Last week, Goldman Sachs announced that the experiment wherein upper management acted like it cared what shareholders think, validated their feelings, took out the trash without having to be asked and so on and so forth was over. Not sure if The International Brotherhood of Electric Workers missed it in the 10-K or if they saw it and thought Lloyd and Co were just JK’ing (we assure you: they were not!) but here we are. Continue reading »
