Alternatively, if you made the mistake of approaching Todd Newman with information that was obtained through legitimate means, Jesse Tortora claims you’d be on the receiving end of a death stare the first time and a “What did I tell you about coming in here with a trade idea you ‘thoroughly researched’? Get the fuck out of my office and don’t ever waste my time with this garbage again,” on subsequent occasions. Read more »
Diamondback
Only Way To Get A Gold Star From Hedge Fund Manager Accused Of Insider Trading Was By Bringing Him Illegal Info, Says Underling
By Bess LevinMembers Of Insider Trading “Club” Were Good At Obtaining Material Non-Public Information, Not So Good At Playing It Cool On Conversations Recorded By The Feds
By Bess Levin
Later this week, Anthony Chiasson, a Level Global co-founder, and Todd Newman, a former Diamondback portfolio manager, will go to trial in Federal Court for allegedly making $67 million in ill-gotten gains, based on inside information they obtained about Nvidia Corp and Dell Inc. According to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, Chiasson and Newman, who’ve both pleaded not guilty, were able to rack up all their profits by teaming up with a bunch of friends and forming an insider trading club, which is a lot like a book club or fight club in that they took roll, traded canapé duties, and drank Pinot Grigio, but different in that instead of discussing The Art Of Fielding or punching each other in the face, they spent every Monday night from 7 to 9 sharing material non-public information with each other.
“This case describes a tight-knit circle of greed on the part of professionals willing to traffic in confidential information,” Bharara said when the charges were announced in January. “It was a circle of friends who essentially formed a criminal club, whose purpose was profit and whose members regularly bartered inside information.”
In the beginning, when the club was first formed, there was a spirit of camaraderie, as the members happily traded tips for everyone’s mutual benefit. Unfortunately, things started to break down when some people agreed to cooperate with the government by recording their friends admitting wrongdoing in exchange for leniency. Former Diamondback analyst Jesse Tortora, for instance, attempted to incriminate fellow club member Danny Kuo on a call the FBI directed him to make on December 1, 2010, a conversation that Chiasson and Newman’s lawyers are now trying to use as evidence that Tortora, who will be testifying against them lacks credibility, based on the fact that when asked by Kuo if his phone was being tapped, Tortora didn’t say “Yup! Helping the Feds build a case against you, actually.” Instead he went with this:
“What’s happening, man?” Tortora asked during the call, according to a transcript prosecutors submitted to the court.
“Dude, is your phone tapped?” Kuo replied.
“Wait, is the phone tapped?” Tortora asked, adding, “Why do you ask that?”
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insider-trading
Today’s Insider Trading Arrests Brought To You In Part By A Cooperating Witness Whose Name Starts With The Word “Spy”
By Bess Levin
Remember, about a year ago, when hedge fund Level Global was rumored to have a government mole in its ranks? At the time, the firm’s representatives said such reports were total bull shit, and, investors were told, here’s how they knew that to be the case:
“As is the case each time there is a new development in the U.S. Attorney’s investigation, we have conducted an extensive internal factual correlation analysis, cross-referencing the facts in the complaints to our firm’s records. Our experienced outside legal counsel has also conducted its own analysis. Based on all of our work and analysis, we have concluded that these complaints do not appear to be referencing Level or Level personnel.”
Frankly, LG was getting a little tired of having to constantly run factual correlation analysis in order to prove the world wrong but c’est la vie. Anyway, despite usually having a 99.9% accuracy rate, the factual correlation calculator apparently missed one.
Last month, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said in a court filing in the case of a PGR employee that Level Global had made a $1.7 million profit by covering a short position it had in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. in June 2009. That May and June, a Level Global technology analyst had about seven phone calls with Manosha Karunatilaka, a PGR expert who worked at TSMC and has pleaded guilty to supplying inside information to investment fund clients, prosecutors said. The Level Global technology analyst, Spyridon “Sam” Adondakis, was overseen by Mr. Chiasson and is cooperating with the government’s investigation, the Journal has previously reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
And now this is happening: Read more »
The $1 billion dollar figure was tallied up prior to today’s 5PM deadline to withdraw, so it may be higher. On the bright side, it could’ve been worse, but preventative measures- ‘around 29% of its $5.8 billion in capital is in multi-year lock-ups’- were in place. [WSJ]
Unlike certain other hedge fund investors (no names: FrontPoint) Diamondback clients have balls. Read more »
Potential Collateral Damage From Insider Trading Fest(ivus) The Feds Probably Didn’t Stop To Think About
By Bess LevinAt Zayna’s Metro Cafe, a New York-style deli that opened earlier this year in Stamford, Chef Aly Allam says he hopes things go back to normal for Diamondback, where the traders are such regular customers he often puts a Diamondback Special on the menu. “They are some of my biggest customers, if they close that’s almost half my business,” the chef told Reuters, saying that maybe 20 Diamondback traders a day frequent his cafe’s busy lunch hour. [Reuters]
“Executives at Diamondback, where FBI agents had ordered employees to put their hands in the air as they entered the premises, also were said to have been caught off guard — especially so because Peter Derby, a former top SEC official, is an employee of the fund.” [Reuters]
Great news, Diamondback investors: your money has (mostly) not been tainted. Read more »
According to Charlie Gasparino, at least one of the aforementioned “low-level” Goldman employees rumored to be tied to the government’s Insider Trading Fest(ivus) 2010 “got roped into the investigation by ‘some sort of association’ with Diamondback Capital Management LLC.” Still unclear: how low we’re actually talking (e.g. first years, summer interns, etc).
Anyone thinking of making any sudden moves should remember this. Read more »
- Use the Bloomberg command
NH BLG_DEALBREAKER <GO>
to access Dealbreaker -
You know what they say: You can’t choose your family, but you can choose your financial planner. Or something like that. One of the great things of being in charge of your money is choosing who (if anyone) will help you manage it. The choice isn’t always an easy one. How will you know that your planner is reputable and trustworthy?
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Sponsored Content
SoFi Answers the Call to Refinance Student Loans and Provides Unique Community Benefits
This is a guest post written by SoFi’s CEO, Mike Cagney.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Recently, there’s been a lot of talk amongst leaders in Washington about how to improve the painful process of repaying student loans. At SoFi, we feel your pain and work hard to offer more flexible, more affordable options for our borrowers. One idea that’s getting a lot of attention is increasing the options for refinancing debt after graduation. The only lender currently focused on refinancing private and federal student loans is SoFi.
We recognized early on that borrowers who have made timely payments on their loans, graduated from school, and have a job should be able to refinance their student loans at a lower interest rate. This may be why, after resuming lending by invitation, the media became increasingly interested in what we are doing.
In a recent article posted on MainStreet.com SoFi General Counsel Rob Lavet had this to say about SoFi’s ReFi products: Read more »
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