Caught by one of our readers, this month’s version of “juxtapositional comedy” care of the Wall Street Journal:
In Today’s Paper [The Wall Street Journal]
Cox’s Cock
Amusingly, it wasn’t 6 months ago that Pequot managed to capture the much-coveted “probably won’t go under” award (technically the “Pulliamp-Strasburg Likely Survivors Amid Turmoil in the Industry” award) issued by the Wall Street Journal to the most middling hedge-fund. More amusingly, it only three months and change from there before Samberg had “…concluded that Pequot can no longer stay in business.”
In no time at all Pequot Capital Management became one of those “repeat offenders” here on Dealbreaker. You know the type: constantly tarnishing these pages with tales of woe, hints of scandal, long missives and tedious adéus of every kind.
But now, new news brought to the forefront by Pequot hastens my return to these pages- owing to my minor, but entertaining connection to the firm, I gravitate to writing projects that include it.* Address your hate mail accordingly.
Trades [by Pequot] linked to Google Inc., Cox Communications Inc., International Securities Holdings Inc., Premcor Inc. and dozens of other companies prompted surveillance units policing U.S. exchanges to make the referrals to the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to agency records obtained by Bloomberg News. Thirty-six reports flagged possible insider trading. Four indicated possible manipulation and four were labeled “other.”
“The numbers would indicate they had trading that closely preceded 36 material events” said Bradley Bennett, a partner at Baker Botts in Washington and a former SEC investigator who focused on insider-trading cases.
No surprise there. Neither, sadly, is the fact that notices on Pequot go back to 2005 or earlier.
I bet there is a press release on their website. Oh. Darn.
Pequot Trading in Google, Cox, Premcor Sparked Warnings to SEC [Bloomberg]
Accusations against the two lawyers – a man and a woman whose names have not been released – are detailed in a report by the SEC inspector general obtained exclusively by CBS News.
The report, based on a review and analysis of “more than two years of e-mail and brokerage records,” puts increased pressure on a commission that has come under fire lately for failing to detect the $60 billion Bernard L. Madoff Ponzi scheme, and turning a blind eye to the Wall Street financial crisis.
Depends on what you think of mark-to-market accounting. Apparently, even in the face of the turning tides, mark-to-market was saved.
The recently departed top accountant for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday he refused to suspend mark-to-market accounting rules last year despite intense political pressure.
Mark-to-market, or fair value, accounting rules require financial companies to value assets based on what they could fetch in a current market transaction. Some bankers and investors have blamed new accounting rules requiring broader use of the standard for exacerbating the financial crisis, saying banks were forced to mark down assets to artificially low prices.
Wonder why he “departed.”
Ex-SEC accounting chief refused to nix fair value [Reuters]
So what happens when your federal agency get publicly skewered with the most detailed, scathing (and likely accurate) verbal disemboweling this side of a re-run of “The Equalizer?” Why, you get double digit budget raises, of course.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to receive a 13% funding boost next year, bringing its 2010 budget to about $1.02 billion.
The boost comes after several years of static funding levels and at a time when the SEC has been criticized sharply for inadequate oversight of the markets and enforcement of securities laws.
The administration said the SEC would use the additional funding to increase staff and its use of technology to “pursue a risk-based, efficient regulatory structure that will better detect fraud and strengthen markets.”
SEC May Get 13% Funding Increase [The Wall Street Journal]
Am I the only one amused that the SEC still has this much power? Still has any power? Still has offices? Still is being supplied with electricity?
A little-noticed ruling by the Securities and Exchange Commission is setting the stage for shareholders to further question the compensation packages doled out to executives at banks that received rescue cash from Uncle Sam.
On Friday the agency gave the OK to a group of investors that wants to put to a shareholder vote a proposal to impose stricter pay caps than those the feds have outlined for executives at Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Financial, which got $3.5 billion from the Trouble Asset Relief Program.
The SEC’s move may spell trouble for banks that have received TARP funds and have been targeted by shareholders for change, including Bank of America, American Express and Fifth-Third Bancorp.
Didn’t someone take away their remote control already and shut down the phones?
SEC OKs Stockholder Input At Firms Getting Tarp Funds [The New York Post]
I hope he has been paying his taxes while over at Deutsche Bank.
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