cans

  • 02 Dec 2010 at 9:23 AM

Steve Cohen Is Totally Unfazed By Feds

By Bess Levin

Perhaps, you thought, after his hedge fund had received a subpoena from the feds, and the FBI had raided the firms of a bunch of his former employees, and an analyst was asked to wear a wire while having conversations with him, all as part of the government’s effort to behead him on live TV, that Steve Cohen would not be in the best of moods. That he would have retreated to the safe room underneath SAC’s headquarters or cryogenically frozen himself inside a Bob’s Big Boy statue and floated in space for 20-30 years, or until this whole thing blew over. Well- think again! He’s in a great mood and he’s out there, getting after it.

At Wednesday’s private opening of the country’s largest and most prestigious art fair, Art Basel Miami Beach, financier Steve Cohen showed no signs of being affected by the subpoena his $12 billion hedge fund, SAC Capital, received last week as part of a sweeping insider-trading investigation…Mr. Cohen, in jovial spirits and eager to chat about his fresh art acquisitions during the fair’s VIP preview, was one of scores of New York collectors who snapped up works in the fair’s initial hours—or, in his case, minutes.

He’s dropping major coin on, among other things, art made out of cans.

Within five minutes of the 11 a.m. opening, Mr. Cohen had dropped into David Zwirner Gallery’s booth, where he spent about $300,000 on Adel Abdessemed’s “Mappemonde,” a large-scale map of the world made from tin cans collected off the streets of Dakar. Within the next hour, he plunked down $180,000 for Tim Hawkinson’s “Bike,” a work of collaged inkjet prints, from Blum & Poe. “It was like boom—immediately,” said Blum & Poe co-owner Jeff Poe.

He’s making jokes (about himself). Continue reading »

  • 04 Nov 2009 at 2:18 PM

Nomura Banker Not Amused By Being Told She Was Better Suited For Housework, Boss Referring To Her Rack As “Knockers”

By Bess Levin

jessica-simpson-rolling-stone-6.jpgKidding, no one would ever use a term like that in the office. What the guy actually called them was “honkers.” As previously discussed, Nomura’s acquisition of Lehman’s internal operations has not gone as smoothly as everyone had hoped. The Lehman employees are very difficult, all but refusing to submit to their new employer’s way of doing things. Particularly the womenfolk. They spent the summer slutting it up in sleeveless shirts, and, despite being told, pointblank, that women exist to serve, they still just seem to not get it. So I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’d raise a ruckus over pretty standard business practices like having their jugs referred to as “honkers” in front of colleagues, and it be suggested that their time would be better spent tidying up the house. What’s next, panties in a bunch over being told to get back in the kitchen? And is “bazonkas” not okay anymore? (Serious questions.)

Maureen Murphy, 30, alleges that one woman trader had her breasts referred to as “honkers” during a meeting. She also claims that a male colleague at the bank said women “belonged at home cleaning floors”.

Continue reading »