According to CNBC’s Mary Thompson, DSK’s bail has been set at $1 million (plus an additional $5 million insurance bond), he must surrender all travel documents and he must agree to “home detention monitoring” in the apartment he and his wife will rent in New York. If anyone’s building has any openings, do be sure to let him know! In related news: Continue reading »
Archive for May 2011
According to the Treasury Secretary, “There will be another storm…but it’s not going to come for a while.” In fact, in order to calm any fears you might have, TG has come up with a whole bunch of stuff that will happen before the next then including but not limited to: 1) the Geithners will finally sell their house 2) the Treasury will unwind its positions in GM and AIG at a profit 3) Tim will emerge victorious from his rematch with those Chinese school children. [TDB]
Here’s what he’s had to say so far (spoiler alert: he would not put it in the “one of the greats” category alongside Lenny Dykstra): Continue reading »
The wine and alcohol collection amassed by Madoff was auctioned off Wednesday, fetching staggering prices for rather mundane lots. The proceeds will go to victims of his decades-long fraud. Some examples: Four airline-size bottles of alcohol (Smirnoff vodka, Bombay gin and Grand Marnier liqueur): sold for $300 (Estimated value: $10 to $20). [WSJ, earlier]
Or at least one of the things on a wish list that includes a revealing 12-month wall calendar, Zamboni rides, a full deck of cards, karaoke night, an invite to the manse for spaghetti with anchovies, the opportunity to submit designs for the tattoo he’ll be getting on his lower lumbar region, a remastered DVD of home video footage that features his conception, birth, and 3rd place finish in the 8 and under 25m butterfly, a lock of chest hair, one year as his foster child, and higher fees: a new fund. Continue reading »
Standard Price Is Right Rules, closest without going over, guesses in by 3:45PM. Continue reading »
On top of all the other stuff- he’s gone and pissed off New York madam Kristin Davis, who Eliot Spitzer can confirm you do not want as an enemy. Continue reading »
A senior staffer, allegedly, which he preferred no one know about. Making this slightly awkward. Continue reading »
Everyone here meet or beat their sales goals.
Yesterday it was reported that in 2007, executives with Munich Re subsidiary Ergo Versicherungsgruppe came up with the idea to throw a party for top performing sales executives at a bathhouse, featuring a bunch of prostitutes for their consumption. Perhaps having heard that gatherings like this can often devolve into chaos and confusion, or maybe it was just German fastidiousness, the organizers decided to color-code the event. Each hooker would wear an armband, with yellow indicating “available for sexual favors,” red indicating that she was a hostess and white indicating that she was “reserved for executives and top agents.” The girls also received a “stamp” following each visit to one of the curtained canopied beds, so party-goers could know how many times she’d been “frequented.” The story is just coming out now because supposedly very senior management only recently heard about it. Which apparently means that some people don’t keep up with the company newsletter, where a recounting of the event amazingly took place way back then. Continue reading »
I.M.F. Chief Quits in Wake of Charges of Sexual Attack (NYT)
“It is with infinite sadness that I feel compelled today to present to the Executive Board my resignation from my post of managing director of the I.M.F.,” he said in a statement dated Wednesday and released early Thursday by the I.M.F. “I think at this time first of my wife — whom I love more than anything — of my children, of my family, of my friends.”
Most French People ‘Think DSK Was Set Up’ (Sky News)
The survey, taken before the 62-year-old’s first court appearance on Monday, showed that 57% of respondents believe the Socialist presidential hopeful has been set up.
Lagarde May Stake Claim as First Female IMF Chief (Bloomberg)
A lawyer who became the first female chairman of Chicago- based firm Baker & McKenzie LLP, Lagarde was appointed as finance minister by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, just before the onset of the financial crisis. Lagarde’s negotiating abilities helped clinch agreement on the euro area’s sovereign bailout fund announced in the early hours of May 10 last year, according to a person who was there…A fluent speaker of English, Lagarde attended a year of high school as an exchange student at Holton Arms, a private girls’ school in Bethesda, Maryland. An avid swimmer, young Christine was selected for the French national synchronized swim team when she was 15 and competed internationally for two years.
J.P. Morgan, Fund Investors Rebut Meredith Whitney (MarketBeat)
J.P. Morgan Asset Management chucked a note over the transom in response to Meredith Whitney’s latest hate letter to the muni market.Their take is that Ms. Whitney makes some points they sort of agree with, but that she seriously overstates the default risk.
Levin sees ‘real hope’ of fresh Goldman probe (FT)
The senator said Goldman’s payment of $550m to settle fraud allegations from the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the marketing of one structured debt product did not preclude other allegations. He said Goldman executives misled his committee but suggested they might have stopped short of lies with “wiggle words”. “They obviously spent a lot of time parsing words,” he said, adding he was “not going to judge whether they committed perjury”. He said even large settlements were not satisfactory without admissions of guilt. Continue reading »
$$$ “A lot of people are willing to say China will slow down,” Kynikos founder Jim Chanos said today. “The really scary thing is if you do the numbers and they cut back on construction it’s not a slowdown, and they go negative real fast…The fact of the matter is if they hit the breaks really hard, the economy goes into reverse. It doesn’t slow. Nobody will say that publicly because it’s unbelievable. But it happens to be the way the numbers work.” [CNBC]
$$$ Strauss-Kahn Lawyers File Request for Court to Reconsider Denial of Bail [Bloomberg]
$$$ Glencore Prices IPO at 530 Pence a Share [WSJ]
$$$ At a Time of Needed Financial Overhaul, a Leadership Vacuum [ProPublica]
$$$ A former Diamondback Capital Management LLC portfolio manager, Anthony Scolaro, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and securities fraud in November, according to a plea agreement unsealed today in Manhattan federal court. Scolaro admitted to conspiring with Franz Tudor, a trader at New York-based Schottenfeld Group LLC, from October 2007 to sometime in 2008. [Bloomberg] Continue reading »
