As you’ve likely heard, serious questions about the credibility of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s alleged victim have suggested criminal charges against the former IMF chief may be dropped. Since he was accused of sexually assaulting a Sofitel maid, several French news outlets have and continue to stress the important distinction between being “a seducer” and “a rapist,” DSK falling into the former category. Want more proof? To further the point, one magazine reported over the weekend that Strauss-Kahn bagged himself a bunch of ladies during his New York trip, as part of his plan de-stress before running for president Continue reading »
French
Apparently the French have some unhappy employees, who didn’t know they were contractually entitled to nothing, on their hands. Continue reading »
Earlier today French doctor Yves Benhamou was charged with passing on some hot info about Hepatitis C to an unnamed hedge fund, which didn’t seem to make any money off of the tip but avoided losing $30 million by a timely sale of six million shares of drug maker Human Genome Sciences. The fund was not named, but according to Matthew Goldstein at Reuters, it’s FrontPoint Partners, which has suspended a trader named Dr. Chip. Continue reading »
What do we know about Fabrice Tourre, the only Goldman employee named-checked in Friday’s suit against Goldman? Save for the fact that he refers to himself as “Fabulous Fab” in emails to friends, not much, though the Daily Mail did uncover this photo of Mr. Fantabulous, I don’t know, jumping out of a plane? And a few more details on the man about to be placed a burlap sack and beaten with reeds by Lloyd Blankfein (if it hasn’t happened already):
* Ecole Centrale Paris graduate
* Masters from Stanford
* Apparently tells people he’s from a “very refined family”
* Earned £1.5million a year while working for GS in New York, where he lived in a £3,000-a-month apartment Continue reading »
True, French bankers are masters of the disdainful frown, delivered with great poise and bitterness even when breaking the news that the client’s entire fortune was, in fact, invested with Bernie Madoff. But even among these captains of the curmudgeon, occasionally a standout emerges. In the case of the SocGen insider trading probe, we are introduced to the art’s newest grandmaster: Jean-Pierre Mustier, and behind-the-scenes side-kick, Robert Day.
Société Générale shareholders, still not over the months-old rogue trading scandal, told Chairman Daniel Bouton that he’d “turned the bank into a casino,” demanded his resignation and booed his every word at today’s annual general meeting. Apparently Bouton’s power point presentation, which showed that over an 8-year period, SocGen shares had remained among the best in the sector, did little to ease the crowd’s anger, probably because the 8-year period was from 1971-1979. It’s all very dramatic, exponentially more so if you imagine it going down in French. Meanwhile, Reuters notes that “a mile or two away from the shareholder meeting,” Kerviel, who went MIA for several days following the scandal, “looked calm and relaxed as he posed exclusively for Reuters Pictures and Television,” taking a cue from his newfound spiritual leader, Eliot Spitzer’s prostitute (she’s teaching classes at the Learning Annex now).
SocGen Chairman Booed Over Kerviel Affair [Reuters via NYT]
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