guns

  • 07 Jul 2010 at 11:57 AM

JPMorgan Bosses Take Road Less Traveled When Dealing With Problem Employee

By

When Kevin Dillon started working for JPMorgan in March 2008 as a “client processing specialist,” everybody liked him just fine. Better than fine, in fact. He was praised by his superiors, he received glowing reviews and in just a few months time, he was slated to receive a bonus and a promotion. This was all, however, before he filed a report citing “highly questionable accounting and management practices” at Highland Capital Management LP and recommending that JPM cease “facilitating Highland’s improper practices.” In doing so, Dillon was forcing his bosses to make a decision re: how to deal with the findings. They could 1) follow his suggestion and cut the hedge fund loose or 2) acknowledge the findings and decide to do nothing about them. In this case, Dill’s bosses decided to go with the second option, telling him they were “aware of Highland’s improper practices [but] that nothing would be done to remedy the issue.”

As I’m sure many of you know, however, when you’ve got a situation like a Kevin Dillon situation, it does not end there. Because if there’s one thing I’ve found in my multiple decades long career on Wall Street is that a guy like Dillon is gonna be trouble. He won’t just accept your decision to look the other way, which is admittedly annoying but something you can deal with if you’ve got the skills or someone coaching you from the sidelines (me).

First off, you can’t fire a Dillon-type straight-away, because it’ll be too obvious. This is something that requires a more subtle touch. You will want to, of course, make work life unpalatable for the employee in question, so taking away his bonus, promoting incompetents over him and offering negative but purposely vague reviews is a given. That’ll go a long way in psyching out said problem employee. But if you really want to break him…if you really want to leave your mark…if you really want to, in the event this thing ends up a lawsuit, make a name for yourself, give the readers something to aspire to and have people say “that guy may be a whack-job and potentially a racist but he knew how to deal with people,” you’ll try something like this. Continue reading »

  • 16 Mar 2010 at 11:15 AM

RenTec’s New CEO’s Mulling Over Shuttering RIEF And RIFF

By

One of these men has a gun and the other can bench 350. Consider not giving them shit about the returns.

Now that Jim Simons has officially retired (he announced his intent to do so last October but he’s been saying that since 2002 and every time he got his foot out the door they pulled him back in, like the siren song of a carton of Pall Malls), it’s time to introduce the world to the new team. Bob Mercer and Peter Brown (pictured) are running the good ship Renaissance now.

The duo, who have known each other since they met doing “code-breaking research for the Defense Department,” and came over to RenTec together in 1993, claim that in Jimbo’s day to day absence (he’s still chairman of the place but will be devoting more time to charity and his 219-foot yacht, Archimedes) they won’t be changing much out in East Setauket, though that’s not entirely true. Yes, the computer servers that run the trading operations will retain their nicknames– Laddersnake, Howler3 and Neon– and yes, the whole operation is still just a front for Long Island’s first tobacco farm. But Brown and Mercer are seriously considering getting rid of RIFF (Renaissance Institutional Futures Fund) and RIEF (Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund), on account of their knack for making a lot less money than Medallion.

Like, a lot less (the flagship has seen average returns of about 45% a year, after fees, since its inception in 1988 and has only lost money in one quarter since 1995, when it was down 0.5% in Q1 of 1999. RIFF and RIEF have fared significantly worse, and assets, which in 2007 were a combined $30 billion have dropped to $6 billion due to withdrawals). The fact that whereas Medallion is almost entirely employee money, and the shittier two funds (RIEF lost 6% last year and 16% in 2008) are open to outside investors has caused a bit of stress for new management. “Other people’s money is like a lever on your anxiety,” says Mr. Brown. So, yes, they’re probably going to put R ‘n R out to pasture but nothing’s for sure just yet. While we wait and see, we might as well get to know Brown and Mercer a bit better. Scott Patterson and Jenny Strasburg recently hopped on the LIRR and spent some time with the two. Here’s what they found out. Continue reading »

  • 04 Feb 2010 at 1:20 PM

Beamers Cafe: Reporting Live

By

beamers.JPGAs previously mentioned, Norwalk resident and UBS VP Peter Mullen was awarded a DUI early Sunday morning, when he failed to prove he wasn’t drunk at a sobriety checkpoint. He was also charged with carrying a firearm (a .45-caliber Wilson Combat Pistol) while under the influence. But this isn’t about Packing Pedro. This is about the place Mullen told the police he was coming from: Beamers, Stamford’s premier strip club.

Continue reading »