Paul Greenwood is a hedge fund manager who is probably going to go to jail for defrauding clients in a Ponzi scheme, which he pleaded guilty to a few weeks back. For that he does not deserve your sympathy or pity. What he did was wrong. But he's also a man who today is having the one thing he cared about most in this world taken away from him. The only thing he cared about. The thing he loved most. Naturally, I refer to his prized Teddy Bear collection.
Greenwood owned 1,348 teddy bears, one of which was valued at $80,000, with the total lot being worth an estimated $3 million. And unlike some alternative asset managers we can think of, ashamed for people to know about their decorative dolls, Greenwood kept his babies showcased in “collector display cabinetry” at the top of a dramatic spiral staircase in his home and kept track of via a spreadsheet that noted specifics like “full-dressed in sailor suit, lavender-tipped mohair coat [and] felt spats."
And now, he's being forced to auction off the majority of the bears at Christie’s next week, probably to pay for legal fees. Bloombergnotes 1,300 are up for grabs, meaning Greenwood is presumably holding on to the ones he keeps in bed with him, but this still hurts, tremendously. And don't even think about suggesting he order up a bunch of Vermont bears to make himself feel better. Those things are pieces of shit to him.
