Wall Street Fraternity's Hazing Process Involves Telling Awful Jokes While Dressing In Drag And Being Pelted With Desserts

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The "jokes" clearly being the most humiliating part of the proceedings.

Kappa Beta Phi, an exclusive Wall Street fraternity whose members include big-name bankers, hedge fund billionaires and private equity titans, met at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan on Thursday night for its 80th annual black-tie dinner and induction ceremony...Absent from this year’s gathering were Wall Street exiles like Richard S. Fuld Jr., the former chief executive of Lehman Brothers; James E. Cayne, the former chief of Bear Stearns; and Jon S. Corzine, the former Goldman Sachs head who presided over the failed brokerage firm MF Global. All are still listed in the group’s member directory, though the men are said not to have attended in a few years.

The night’s agenda was twofold: install officers for the coming year and haze incoming members by having them don wigs, gold-sequined skirts and skin-tight tops and put on a comedic variety show for the enjoyment of other members. Two initiates did a comedy act lampooning Mr. Corzine and Steven A. Cohen, a prominent hedge fund manager whose firm, SAC Capital Advisors, has had some former employees who have been ensnared in recent insider-trading investigations. (Neither Mr. Cohen, who is not a Kappa, nor Mr. Corzine has been accused of any wrongdoing.) “What do Steve Cohen and Jon Corzine have in common?” the joke went. “They’re future cellmates!”...As is customary during Kappa events, some audience members threw objects at performers on stage, including petit fours and napkins dipped in wine.

A Raucous Hazing at a Wall St. Fraternity [Dealbook]

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