those were the days

Was it:

a) Lloyd Blankfein
b) Hank Paulson
c) Jon Corzine
d) Stephen Friedman
e) Gus Levy
f) John Whitehead
g) John Weinberg
h) Sidney Weinberg
i) Marcus Goldman
j) other Read more »

Specifically, her rights to Perrier on the company dime. It’s unclear what this woman’s name is so moving forward she’ll simply be referred to as The One With Brass Balls And An Allergy To Tap. Read more »

“First of all, this is a personal choice. From a corporate perspective, we have a lot of Democrats at the firm and my partner, Tony James, has been a supporter of the president. This is my choice, not a Blackstone choice. When we started Blackstone in 1985, the first investment we made in private equity was a joint deal with Mitt Romney at Bain. This turned out to be a marvelously successful deal with a profit of a company making aluminum wheels which expanded very rapidly. We made about 16 times profit. The second deal we did, Mitt led that one – we did that deal at Blackstone and we invited him to be the minority partner and we made 24 times our money. In finance, that’s a way to make friends.” Read more »

As Wall Street bonuses bulged and housing prices were peaking in 2005, Daniel Mudd found himself dreading his top job at Fannie Mae. Going to work felt like “a choice between poking my eye out and cutting off a finger,” Fannie’s former chief executive officer recalls in Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera’s new tome, “All the Devils Are Here.” [Bloomberg]

Steve Mandala is the guy who took Merrill Lynch for $780,000, and with some of the cash, bought himself a red 2006 Ferrari F430 Spider. Prior to joining the bank, he was a broker at Maxim Group who earned about $100,000 annually. He sensed that there was some money to help himself to at Mother Merrill but didn’t think he’d be able to land the gig. So, he lied and told them he was a partner at Maxim, where he managed $300 million in assets and took home $765,000 a year. This probably would not have worked at some other firm, but Merrill was a special, special bank.

“Somehow you got them to hire you because you told them you had big-time clients?” acting state Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman said to Mandala in court, referring to Merrill Lynch.

Read more »


“The biting of the nose and the fights, sure, when you’re throwing around that kind of money, people tend to lose it sometimes,” said Doug Pringle, 42, who traded corn, soybeans, 10- year Treasury notes and 30-year bonds for 17 years. “I miss the excitement.”
Trading-Pit Glamour Dims as Computers Ascend in Film [Bloomberg]
Floored Official Site [Floored the Movie via DI]

As previously mentioned, one of the unforeseen consequences of the Galleon insider trading bust was credibility taking a hit. Specifically that of the individuals who’d told their friends and colleagues that Danielle Chiesi was a dime piece, and who were slightly dismayed to see the picture of her from a Bridget Nielsen (Flavor Flav Years) look-a-like contest. Luckily, they were saved when Bloomberg reported Danielle Chiesi was in fact named Miss Southern Tier Teenager in 1981, with the photo of DC in a tiara following shortly thereafter to prove it. Today another pic has emerged, from the sorority files.

Read more »

  • 16 Oct 2009 at 5:57 PM

Dear Galleon Groupies

From: Bob Wood
Sent: Fri 10/9/2009 5:06 PM
Subject: Galleon Group September 2009 Commentary and Performance Reviews
Please find attached Galleon’s monthly investment letter together with the package of the September performance reports. All of the funds recorded solid returns for the month as we continue to see evidence that we are moving into a stock pickers market. If you have any questions or wish additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Robert Wood
Managing Director, Business Development
The Galleon Group
590 Madison Avenue, 34th Floor

Read more »

Picture 1243.pngYou know, we were fairly certain that the first time we wrote about octogenarian Ace Greenberg’s sex life (by way of Barbara Walters’ who was also banging Alan Greenspan at the time) was going to be the last. Thanks to Charlie Gasparino, not so! Perhaps taking his Italian deli meats beat a bit too literally, Gasparino’s latest report involves the former Bear Stearns chairman attempting, unsuccessfully, to slip a BSC employee the salami. Sadly, Ace Not In The Hole was unsuccessful, and Jimmy Cayne was forced to pay off the girl to the tune of $2 million.

The allegations, which centered around “inappropriate touching,” according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, didn’t result in a lawsuit. Instead, reeling from the bad press of the firm’s role in the burgeoning financial crisis, Cayne settled the matter with the woman, a much younger employee who worked in sales capacity, and who had initially demanded a much higher payment. The employee also claimed to have had a witness to this behavior. In an interview, the 81-year-old Greenberg said, “I can’t comment on something as ridiculous as this.” When given another opportunity to comment on either the unproven allegations or whether the payment was actually made, Greenberg said, “I’m not going to dignify” the matter with a response. He referred to the entire issue as “bullshit,” and said my sources were “pathological liars.”

Shockingly, JPMorgan, which every day must get down on its knees and thank god it paid the privilege to be saddled with “these people,” declined to comment when Gasparino came a’ calling. Regardless, and not to minimize sexual harassment, can’t we all just come to the conclusion that of course this happened? In his last years at Bear, Greenberg was doing magic tricks and getting broken up over the fact that his puppy wasn’t placing well in dog shows. Which is to say, he was dipping his toe in senility, if not jumping right in, and more than likely thought that stuff like, I don’t know, pinching girls’ asses on the floor still fell under the umbrella of “appropriate” touching, which it was when he first started at the firm, back in 1821.
Earlier: Barbara Walters Has Done 80 Percent Of Wall Street’s Living Dinosaurs

Picture 735.png
Sir Stanford, cricket y fraud fan, in presumably happier times.

Read more »