The lawsuit that Goldman Sachs filed earlier this week against seven of its former employees that defected to Credit Suisse? Boom. Evaporated. Dismantled probably by LB’s pair of “giant, nuclear-powered testicles.”
lawusuits
A former Bank of America employee, Jack Mitchell, is suing the bank for $60 million for racial bias. Mitchell, an African-American, alleges in the lawsuit that BofA “supported and propagated a racially biased and discriminatory business allocation system.” Christopher Brennan, Mitchell’s attorney, tells us that the system was “akin to apartheid.”
“It wasn’t an accident, It’s a cynical belief on the part of BofA that white customers wouldn’t want to receive banking and investment advice from African-American employees, so they assigned them to minority neighborhoods. And because these are in low-income areas, it placed him at a disadvantage compensation-wise because he had less access to high-net-worth clients who are the particular target of his banking area.”
Most of us (me) were kind of under the impression that now that he’s retired, Ken Lewis didn’t much give a rat’s ass what Andrew Cuomo or the SEC, or anyone throws his way. Sleeping late, boozing in the morning, distilling his own moonshine, and participating in beard-growing contests are what his days are about, not defending himself re: whether or not he tried to keep the Merrill losses on the hush-hush from his investors until the deal was done, at which time John Thain came in the front door tracked shit all over BAC’s new rug. Apparently, though, we were wrong, and Ken Lewis is fighting this fight.
Talking Biz News is reporting that Reuters supposedly held the SAC Ex-Wife article by the excellent Matt Goldstein after top Thomson Reuters executives allegedly received pressure from the mothership to kill the story. In related news, there may be another reason why several news outlets, who, we have it on good authority, had the story as well, held it until the suit was officially filed, unrelated to any pressure from the hedge fund.
Goldman Sachs is being sued by Security Police and Fire Professionals of America Retirement Fund, an investor in GS. According to the Village People, the bank is going to “blindly reward” its directors with profits that were not made through “hard work” and had “nothing to do with the skill of the company’s employees,” but merely the generosity of the US taxpayer. This seems unfair because 1) did they not see the news that in a huge display of nothing but love for the people, Lloyd and his back-up dancers, the Golden Scrots, will be receiving no cash bonuses this year??? and 2) please don’t diminish the many hours Goldman employees spent crafting the perfect saddle on which to take turns riding Tim Geithner around the trading floor. Talking like hundreds of dozens here.
Russian-American investor, Len Blavatnik, whose industrial holding company, Access Industries, reportedly lost $98 million on subprime investments wants to have a word with the House of Dimon. Blavatnik alleges his JPM banker, Ted Ufferfilge, had a unique interpretation of a conservative, low-risk strategy for his investments is suing JPM for his losses. When the subprime market started to tank and Blavatnik wanted out, Ufferfilge gave him those soothing words of wisdom- the investments were “money good”. JPM points out that anybody vulnerable enough to wind up in subprime investments qualifies as a “sophisticated investor” and therefore the lawsuit is frivolous.
“We believe this lawsuit is meritless and a transparent attempt to recover losses resulting from the unprecedented market downturn. We intend to defend this matter vigorously.”
Company Is Planning to Sue Chase Over Investment Losses [NYT]
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