We’ve been spending some time trying to clear away the murk and shine some light into the shadows of Jeffrey Epstein’s financial dealings in an effort to provide some, uhm, actual financial reporting related to the sex candal encircling the mysterious money manager. There’s not much that is publicly available but we’re still digging.
What we have discovered, however, is a brief document amending a credit agreement for RELIANT PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. The amendment replaces the administrative agent for the credit. But what caught our eye was the confluence of three DealBreaker subjects all in the same documents.
The signature pages include lines for Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack, who is scheduled to appear before the SEC in connection with allegations of insider trading at Pequot Capital, as well at Jeffrey Epstein, who signs as trustee of the Wexner Children’s Trust II, part of the financial empire of The Limited founding family. And the agent who is being replaced? Goldman Sachs, where alleged insider trading crooks Eugene Plotkin and David Pajcin worked (not to mention the alma mater of that other DealBreaker obsession, Hank Paulson).
Now this is no doubt just a coincidence, and not really a conspiracy to make our heads explode. We should probably just take a deep breath and then post a Venn Diagram illustrating the connections but our diagramist is in meetings off-site.
One additional thought: this is probably the last time you’ll see Epstein’s name coupled with the words “trust” and “children” any time in the near future.
Reliant Consent, waiver and amendment [SEC]
Plotkin
The SEC named three Croatians to the list of defendants in the civil lawsuit it filed over the insider-trading racket alleged to have been led by former Goldman Sachs associate Eugene Plotkin and analyst David Pajcin, bringing the total number of defendants to seventeen. The new defendants are Bruno Verinac, Antun Dilber and Anto Krsic.
Seventeen is almost a mind-boggling number of defendants. What kind of secretive conspiracy involves everyone you know? Was there anyone close to Plotkin and Pajcin they weren’t tipping?
SEC Charges 3 More for Insider Trading [Associated Press in the Houston Chronicle]
The government added three more people to the defendant list in the insider trading case centered around Eugene Plotkin, David Pajcin and Stan Shpigelman. Eugene and David were both Goldman guys, and the younger Stan was an analyst at Merrill. The plot, which was allegedly hatched in a downtown Russian bathhouse, now spans two continents, at least three countries, and includes players as diverse as strippers, Eastern European relatives, a mailman serving on a potentially important business trial and guys working the shipping decks at the plant where Business Week is printed.
SEC adds three more to the insider trading defendants list [WallStFolly]
Eugene Plotkin—the alleged ring leader of what is, lets face it, our favorite insider trading scandal—is still in jail. Yesterday’s New York Post reported that Plotkin has been unable to make bail since he was arrested on April 11, unable to convince friends to support the $3 million bond set for his release. Now Plotkin has canned his laywer, Martin Schmukler, a mob-and-drug lord type, and hired of a proper big law firm, white-collar crime lawyer.
His new lawyer, Edward Little (pictured here), was formerly a federal prosecutor and now runs the white-collar-crime practice at Hughes Hubbard & Reed. Little tells the Post that he’s confident his client will make bail soon.
Plotkin Fires Attorney [New York Post]
Eugene Plotkin, who allegedly masterminded the Stripper-Eastern Europe-Business Week-Mail Dude-Insider-Trading scam from inside his post at Goldman Sachs, was indicted yesterday. He’s now sitting in jail, waiting to make bail. Apparrently the young man has had some trouble coming up with co-signers on his $3 million bail bond.
The NY Post has details about the bail bond haggling.
At a bail hearing yesterday, Plotkin’s lawyer, Martin Schmukler, said the aunt and uncle agreed to put their $1 million home on the line. But they don’t want to co-sign on the bond, which could make them liable for the entire $3 million if Plotkin fled.
Plotkin’s parents are willing to co-sign on the bond, but they are no longer willing to put up the $250,000 in cash they’d promised because his father, Mikhail, was concerned about not having any cushion if his health failed, Schmukler said.
DealBook reports that Goldman confirmed our young Plotkin’s been fired from Goldman Sachs. Earlier he was merely under suspension.
Wall St. Scammer to Stay in Slammer [New York Post]
This shot is from Wall Street Folly’s screen-caps of CNBC’s footage of alleged insider trader and Plotkin ring-member Jason Smith’s perp walk. I guess Smith didn’t get the Patrick Byrne memo about celebrating this sort of thing.
Many more here.
Add another alleged culprit to the cast of characters of our favorite insider trading scandal. It seems that Jersey City postal worker Jason Smith has been arrested for allegedly leaking confidential information about a grand jury’s probe of accounting fraud at Bristol Meyers Squibb.
And to whom did Smith allegedly leak the info? None other than Eugene Plotkin—Harvard grad/competitive dance/indie filmmaker/novelist/Goldman analyst turned alleged crook.
So far we’ve got a shady connection to Eastern Europe, strippers, an Ivy league network of would be criminal masterminds, a Russian bathhouse. And now the postal service. This story keeps getting better.
Another Arrest In Insider Trading Scandal [Associated Press]
More DealBreaker coverage of the Plotkin Plot
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