Like most people who do these sorts of things, Linda Speaks Tribby had a good excuse, which is that she needed the money to buy a helicopter and a motor home, two purchases that seem slightly at odds but the heart wants what it wants. Continue reading »
Wachovia
Wachovia Employee Admits To Convincing Clients To Put $14.1 Million In Wealth Management Fund Bank Didn’t Actually Offer
By Bess LevinWachovia VP Had Good Reason To Steal Money From Bank That You’ll Probably Never Understand
By Bess Levin
Scott Welch's Den of Iniquity
With the money he embezzled from Wachovia ($11.2 million give or take a few clams), Scott Welch bought himself many a sports car. This was a plan, to throw people off the trail. He didn’t buy a new set of wheels “constantly,” as neighbors recall, in an attempt to hide the fact that he was stealing money from the bank, but to distract from what he was really putting the funds toward. A love that dare not speak its name. A love of plants, and impeccably maintained yards. Continue reading »
Mark Zaino, a former UBS trader who worked on the firm’s derivatives and municipal securities desk, pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges today in the wide-ranging investigation into sham auctions and bid rigging in financial products sold to municipalities.
Zaino is the first banker to plead guilty to charges and he has agreed to cooperate with investigators. Another banker at Bank of America, who participated in the massive bid-rigging scheme, is also providing information to the Feds about the scam. Continue reading »
I’m still trying to get my head around this: What does it mean when the stock you hold that is sitting at $6.00 per share posts a $11.00 per share loss? That’s is the Wachovia shareholder experience.
Punt.
Chief Executive Robert K. Steel said, “Although this has been a challenging quarter, Wachovia’s underlying businesses remain solid and our franchise exceptionally attractive.”
As we pointed out yesterday, we might be outraged, but nothing surprises us anymore. Seriously. Nothing. Really. We saw a cab drive by the other day dragging a burning Christmas tree behind it. Nothing. No bells. No whistles.
Ironically, their net loss of $23.7 billion looks suspiciously close to the $25.5 billion purchase price for Golden West Financial. Funny how that works.
Wachovia Swings to a $23.7 Billion Loss [Wall Street Journal]
Bear Stearns
IndyMac
Lehman Brothers
Washington Mutual
Wachovia
National City
National City Drops 52% as Market Wonders Who’s Next [CNBC]
Wachovia Begins Early Deal Talks With Citi [Dealbook]
You sort of knew that the Bangkok Bank Flu was going to hit the regionals and super regionals once they saw the haughty WaMu brought low. I suppose it means something that Dimon et. al. have made provisions for expensive refurbishing given that many WaMu branches don’t have vaults in them. That has to be some kind of indicator worth paying attention to. (Recommendation: A PIPE transaction with Fischet).
National City has broken the $3 floor, after a 40%ish drop, its paper probably on its way to the non-existent WaMu vault. Fifth/Third, which had been pretending not to notice for some time, is starting to notice. Wachovia took at 30% haircut. Wells Fargo, however, having been sprinkled with Magic Buffett DustTM is up 5%. That stuff bends space and time to such an extent that Steve Jobs might defacto have given up his monopoly on the Reality Distortion Field.TM
Update: Relax, Asian bankers. We weren’t suggesting another Thai currency crisis or anything. Just a highly virulent fiscal bug that is going around in the new center of American Finance: North Carolina.
Wachovia, National City tumble on bailout, WaMu news [Reuters]
New Wachovia CEO Robert Steel vowed to turn things around at the bank and he was not kidding. He started with morale boosting pep rallies and marshmallow tower building competitions, and now he’s moved on to a not even necessary capital raise that, while probably dilutive to current shareholders, is sure to wow the crowds with Bobby’s out of the box thinking, no doubt honed during his time at Goldman Sachs.
We did it! Bleeding out the ass Wachovia is now up nearly twenty five percent clearly due in large part to our pep-rally this morning. Fantastic jobs all around.
At this time, in light of Wachovia’s not so good second quarter, I want everyone to get up on his/her chair and shout “I love Wachovia,” while dancing, which is not only a team building exercise for WB first years but 95 percent of CEO Robert Steel’s master plan for pumping the stock. Unless of course you are planning on making some $$$ on what Bove thinks is an around the corner fall–lookin’ at you, Paulson–in which case, please proceed with your refrain of choice, “Let’s burn this motherfucker down.”
Ten state securities regulators just showed up at Wachovia’s St. Louis headquarters, reportedly seeking documents on auction rate securities sales and marketing practices. Today’s “on-site investigation” follows over seventy formal complaints and Wachovia’s failure to comply with requests for information. If you’re readng this in STL and they haven’t gotten to your floor yet, start shredding and hide the marshmallows.
