email: tips@dealbreaker.com
text: (646) 820-4847
call: (212) 334-1871
all tips are anonymous
$$$ Jeffrey Epstein Investigated For Child Trafficking [TDB]
$$$ Ballmer’s iPad Envy [WSJ]
$$$ Moore’s Blochet Moves to Switzerland as Hedge-Fund Managers Flee U.K. Tax [Bloomberg]
$$$ Sexy spy Anna Chapman’s glamorous police mugshot sweeps internet [NYP]
From the mailbag: Read more »
Someone’s gonna be splurging at Jos A. Bank tonight. Read more »
BTW, for anyone looking for the actual reason why Susquehanna International Group is allegedly the best firm to work at, the answer may involve the fact that they pretty much just let everyone play poker all day (“poker pervades the culture of SIG”). Something to think about.
Here’s one: in an online survey of current and former employees, Goldman Sachs beat out a whole slew of financial services firms to be named– wait for it– the second best place to work. Now, I know a lot of other banks and institutions would be sending out congratulatory emails about how great an achievement this is and so on and so forth right about now. That’s because these banks and institutions are losers, just as second place is (the number one loser, in fact). Reuters is trying to make a big deal of the whole thing, offering Goldman a pat on the back, going on about how this is great news in a time that Goldman could really use it, which is of course just making things worse. Why not draw attention to the fact that GS is the best place to work after freaking Susquehanna International Group, Reuters? You know what Goldman could really use, Reuters? You stuffing it. This is not great news. Goldman finishes second to no one and it certainly doesn’t finish second to companies headquartered in Lower Merion Township. Today, though, the bank did.
[Breathe] Read more »
They want to act like children? Fine. That’s their prerogative. He’s done.
“If the goal of the SEC is every two or three weeks to come out and say that there’s another financial company that’s done something wrong,” the agency will drive home the belief “that the financial system in the United States is rotten, that it’s run by crooks who create fraudulent products,” said Dick Bove, analyst at Rochdale Securities. As investors wait for more regulatory shoes to drop, “the markets will continue to act in the volatile fashion that they are right now,” he said.
Citigroup to pay $75 mn to settle SEC charges [Business Standard]
Remember Cristina Culicea and Danille Pecile? Probably not but to recap: last July, the former Titan Capital Group assistants sued their boss, Russell Abrams who asked Danielle to print out some photos he took of his wife, Sandra, on their honeymoon. In the pictures, Sandra is posing on yacht, with her rack on full display, which apparently made Danielle uncomfortable, as did the smirk Abrams gave his underling as she handed pics over, and when he asked “You liked them, didn’t you?” She, in fact, did not. Read more »
If she has to, she has to.
So give it up for them says the bank’s chief economist. Read more »
People are reportedly prettay prettay pleased at the House of Dimon this morning. Read more »
From Tiananmen Square to Possible Buffett Successor (WSJ)
Twenty-one years ago, Li Lu was a student leader of the Tiananmen Square protests. Now a hedge-fund manager, he is in line to become a successor to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway. Mr. Li, 44 years old, has emerged as a leading candidate to run a chunk of Berkshire’s $100 billion portfolio, stemming from a close friendship with Charlie Munger, Berkshire’s 86-year-old vice chairman. In an interview, Mr. Munger revealed that Mr. Li was likely to become one of the top Berkshire investment officials. “In my mind, it’s a foregone conclusion,” Mr. Munger said.
For Goldman Sachs, Remaking a Hub in Battery Park City (CityRoom)
On Wednesday night, members of a committee of Manhattan’s Community Board 1 heard about Goldman Sachs’s plans to upgrade a hotel next to its headquarters and to bring in Danny Meyer to open a Shake Shack, a Blue Smoke barbecue joint and a fancier restaurant in the complex, a block from the World Trade Center site.
Wyly Brothers Face SEC Fraud Charge (WSJ)
Billionaire brothers Sam Wyly and Charles Wyly hid $550 million in trading profits by using an “elaborate sham system” of offshore entities, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Thursday. The civil suit, following a six-year probe, targets a pair of entrepreneurs in their mid-70s who amassed a fortune over more than four decades through ventures including Michaels arts and crafts stores.
Obama Making Sales Pitch for Auto Bailouts to Skeptical Voters (Bloomberg)
“We are going to get all the money back that we invested in those car companies,” Obama said on ABC’s “The View” program. The industry’s resurgence “tells a good story” about the U.S. economic recovery, he said.
Marc Faber Questions if Dow Could Hit 1,000 (CNBC)
Never say never?
Americans Buy IPads While Broke in New Abnormal Economy (Bloomberg)
In March, Ralph Ronzio went to a warehouse in a seedy part of Orange County, California, and watched a man auction off his condo for half what he’d paid for it. Ronzio had bought the place for $329,000 in 2005, when he moved to Southern California from Rhode Island to take a job at a data-storage company. It was the first place he’d ever owned. “It was totally my bachelor pad,” he says. “Not much inside other than the usual leather couch and the big screen TV. My fiancée made me sell the couch.” That wasn’t the only thing that changed when Ronzio got engaged. His fiancée had two young children, and there wasn’t enough room in the condo for all four of them. So last year, Ronzio bought a house nine miles away and they all moved in. He figured he could rent the condo and cover his costs. But the more he thought about the money he was losing, the more it stressed him out. Finally, Ronzio enlisted the help of a firm called You Walk Away and did exactly that from the remaining $319,000 on his condo mortgage. When the bank foreclosed, he says he felt a sense of relief. He also had more cash. He and his fiancée took the kids to Disneyland. Ronzio, 31, gave himself a treat as well. “I bought myself an iPad,” he says. Read more »
$$$ NY Fed: Toxic Assets from AIG, Bear Gaining Value [CNBC]
$$$ Lawmakers Call On Six Firms to Claw Back Bonuses [Dealbook]
$$$ SEC charges Wyly brothers with $550 million fraud [Reuters]
$$$ ‘Long Island Lolita‘ Amy Fisher Starts Porn Company [CNBC]
$$$ “This just happened: WFC first year analysts ice BOA associates at local bar.” Read more »
