Cross David Slaine And He'll Make You Wish You Were Never Born
Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journalouted trader David Slaine as one of the cooperating sources in the Galleon case (although when reached at home and confronted about his role in the ring, Slaine told reporters "you've got the wrong guy"). Big D was first approached by the FBI in 2007, when authorities came to him with evidence he'd traded on inside info. Hoping to save himself, Slaine told prosecutors that his friend, Craig Drimal, was part of an "insider-trading conspiracy involving a wide ring of other hedge-fund managers and lawyers." Obviously, throwing one's colleague under the bus is no easy thing to do, especially when the guy also happens to be one of your close friends. Drimal and Slaine go way back-- they were not just buds, but weight-lifting partners, too, which is probably the tightest bond of all (the two originally met during Slaine's clubbing days, when Drimal was a bouncer at Vertical and "quickly formed a friendship based on a shared passion for weight lifting and their mutual ability to bench-press 400 pounds"). They were so close, in fact, that soon after taking a gig with Galleon, Big D convinced his bosses to give Drimal-- then working as a bouncer at the Roxy-- a job as an assistant at the firm. But along the way something must have happened. A confrontation. A blow-up. Something dark, at the gym, involving spotting, for Slaine to rat his special friend out like this. One thing I can tell you about Slaine is that he wouldn't have done it unless provoked. Like the time at Morgan Stanley, in the nineties, with the French Fries.
In 1993, Slaine triggered a fist-fight with a colleague on the trading floor after needling him because he wouldn't share his french fries. Others broke up the fight.
You just can't do that, okay? You can't not share your fries and expect the Slaine-ster to just sit back and take it, no you cannot. Similarly, you can't expect to confront Slaine about his unsatisfactory performance and think you're not going to get your teeth knocked out by a sweaty, glistening, stark-naked Big D.
Mr. Slaine's performance trading stocks for Galleon's health-care fund faltered, creating tension, a person familiar with the matter says. One morning early in 2001, before trading began, Gary Rosenbach, then was the No. 2 executive under Mr. Rajaratnam, and Slaine were in a steam room together after exercising at an Equinox Fitness Club. Mr. Rosenbach was pressuring Mr. Slaine to improve his performance. As Mr. Rosenbach lay on his back on a bench, Mr. Slaine punched him, giving him a black eye and ending their friendship.
So obviously Drimal must have done something really bad. The question is what. And while we're at it, would anyone else like to come forward and discuss a) the various ways in which you wronged David Slaine and b) what his response was? Did you accidentally trip him and for the offense have scalding hot coffee thrown in your face? The D-man's been doing this thing for a while (he's a former Nasdaq trading chief at Morgan Stanley, also traded at Jefferies, Galleon and Oracle Partners, and ran a fund with two former SAC employees, Robert Jaffe and Robert Cannon) so you will not be alone in sharing your story.
