Bess Levin

Posts by Bess Levin

  • 12 Apr 2013 at 2:53 PM

John Paulson Has Figured Out A Way To Save On Taxes Without Having To Run A Fund That Loses 58% First

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A couple weeks back, we went on the record to say that John Paulson was in the early stages of a grand comeback. The hedge fund manager, who had become a billionaire many times over thanks to his subprime bets, only to spend the last several years sucking a magnificent amount of wind, had finally turned things around in his Advantage and Advantage Plus funds, which gained 5.6 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively, in March. Like us, Paulson obviously saw the tides turning and while that had to have felt good, it left him with a bit of a conundrum.

While seeing Advantage plus lose over half its value from the end of 2010 through March of this year was probably not exactly JP (nor his investors’) idea of fun, the situation did present a unique silver lining, in that it meant that during the annii horribilis, those invested in the fund did not have to pay Uncle Sam a dime. Sensing a change in his investing karma, Paulson clearly panicked, waking up in the middle of the night to ask himself: ‘But wait? How am I going to replicate the euphoria of paying no taxes, without managing a hedge fund that loses a fuckton of money first?’ Read more »

  • 11 Apr 2013 at 6:30 PM

Expert Network Analyst Extracted Tips From Company Insider Through Power Of Sustained Badgering

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At trial, Mr. Nguyen testified that Ms. Jiau repeatedly pestered him with phone calls on his cellular phone and at home before Nvidia was set to report earnings in August 2008, seeking details about the company’s financials. Mr. Nguyen said he finally broke down and shared information about Nvidia’s current and future revenue, gross margins and other financial data after she interrupted him while he was bathing his young son. He pleaded guilty to criminal charges and avoided jail time after he cooperated with prosecutors. [WSJ]

  • 11 Apr 2013 at 6:19 PM

Richard Parsons: So You Want To Start Your Own Vineyard

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“You’re a farmer. You can’t control the weather. When you make a Brunello, you have to follow a set of rules. One is no interference with nature. You can’t irrigate in a dry year. I happen to like traditional methods. I’m kind of old school. If you’re someone who balks at following rules, you can still make wine, but you can’t call it a Brunello. You might want a vineyard in Napa Valley instead.” [BusinessWeek]

  • 11 Apr 2013 at 4:36 PM

‘Scantily Clad’ Shoeshine Girls At New FiDi Outfit May Look Like Hooters Waitresses But They Know Their Shit

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If there was one thing you could change about your regular shoe shine guy, would it be how he looks in a pair of shorts and a tank top? Is the only thing holding you back from taking your leather elsewhere the assumption that you can either go to a shiner who knows his way around a shoe or you can go to someone who’s easy on the eyes, but you can’t go to both? Then prepare to have your world rocked. Read more »

  • 11 Apr 2013 at 2:09 PM

Caption Contest Thursday

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Former KPMG partner Scott London and golf pal/jeweler/recipient of tips re: Herbalife, Sketchers, etc Bryan Shaw, meeting surreptitious in a parking lot, as people do. Photo Credit: FBI. [CNBC]

  • 10 Apr 2013 at 6:17 PM

Jamie Dimon Is (Still) Sorry

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JP Morgan & Co.’s chairman and chief executive officer, James Dimon, renewed his apologies to shareholders for last year’s multibillion-dollar trading fiasco, and an investor that has pushed for corporate-governance changes at large financial firms said it would focus this proxy season on changing the bank’s board…The 57-year-old Mr. Dimon called the “London Whale” trading losses, which cost the company more than $6 billion and led to the departure of a top aide to the CEO, “a real kick in the teeth” and “the stupidest and most embarrassing situation I have ever been a part of.” Five pages of Mr. Dimon’s 30-page annual letter to shareholders, released Wednesday, outlined “lessons learned” from the incident, which damaged Mr. Dimon’s standing as the best risk manager on Wall Street. [WSJ]

Bill Ackman To Get JCPenney Ticker Symbol Tattooed To His Ass, Or Something

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That or he’s going to burn all his clothes and replace them exclusively with items exclusively purchased at the retailer, or hell, just move into the place. Whatever it takes to show he’s more committed to this place than ever. Read more »

‘You Can Still Lose Money Trading On Material Non-Public Information’ Is Biggest Takeaway From KPMG Scandal, Posits Lawyer Representing Guy Doing The Tipping

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Scott London’s path from KPMG LLP partner to subject of insider-trading investigations began with a casual conversation in 2010 with “someone I’d known from the golf club, ” he said in an interview. Mr. London said the discussions—which began after he had spent a quarter of a century at KPMG—concerned corporate audit clients Herbalife Ltd. and Skechers USA Inc. It wasn’t until the second or third chat that he realized that his unidentified friend was trading on the information, he said…In late March, Mr. London said he was contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, at which point he hired a lawyer, Harland W. Braun…Mr. Braun said his client hadn’t reached a deal with prosecutors or the SEC to settle any allegations that may result from their investigations. Mr. Braun said the friend’s brokerage had frozen his trading account, adding that some of these trades had lost money. “It just shows how dangerous casual tips can be,” Mr. Braun said. [WSJ]

  • 10 Apr 2013 at 1:53 PM

Steve Cohen Wants To See A 379.16% Return On Manhattan Penthouse

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As you all well know, Steve Cohen has been on a bit of a shopping spree lately. And while the SAC Capital founder is a fairly wealthy man and can buy most if not all of what his heart desires, it never hurts to have a little extra cash on hand (one never knows when an impulse purchase will present itself). That’s where you come in. Read more »

  • 09 Apr 2013 at 5:46 PM

Stanford Business School, Animal In Peril Need Your Help! (UPDATE)

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There’s not a lot of time, so we’ll get right to it:

From: redacted at Stanford GSB
Date: Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 2:02 PM
Subject: [blastmsg] Dove Rescue Mission (Schwab Lobby)
To: “GSB-Blast-All”

Read more »

  • 09 Apr 2013 at 5:42 PM

Former British Banker Is 30 Percent Sorry For Helping Destroy Company

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James Crosby, a former chief executive of HBOS, said on Tuesday that he would ask authorities to remove his knighthood in light of a damning report published last week that blamed him in part for the mortgage lender’s 2008 collapse. “Shortly after I left HBOS, I received the enormous honor of a knighthood in recognition of my own – and many other people’s – contribution to the creation of a company which was then widely regarded as a great success,” Mr. Crosby said in an e-mailed statement. “In view of what has happened subsequently to HBOS, I believe that it is right that I should now ask the appropriate authorities to take the necessary steps for its removal.” Mr. Crosby said he was “deeply sorry for what happened at HBOS” and that he “always tried to act with integrity.” “I would like to express my sincere regret for events,” he wrote in the e-mail. He also said he would give up 30 percent of his pension, which currently is about £580,000 ($887,700) a year. [Dealbook]

  • 09 Apr 2013 at 4:35 PM

Dealbreaker NCAA Tournament Challenge 2013: Final Results

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And the winner of dinner at Peter Luger plus a limited edition Dealbreaker banker bag, sure to make you the envy of your colleagues, family, friends, and foes is: Read more »