Deutsche Bank in New York Libor probe (FT)
Benjamin Lawsky, the New York regulator known for taking a hard line against overseas banks, has shouldered his way into the long-running Libor scandal, investigating Deutsche Bank for alleged manipulation of the benchmark borrowing rate, according to people familiar with the matter. The probe by New York’s Department of Financial Services adds to a litany of US regulatory problems for Germany’s largest lender.
Alleged ‘Spoofing’ Trader Faces New Accusations (WSJ)
Igor Oystacher, a co-founder of proprietary trading firm 3Red Group, tried to keep former partner Edwin Johnson from speaking to regulators about Mr. Oystacher’s alleged tactics, Mr. Johnson alleges in the suit. Mr. Johnson claims he was forced into signing a settlement agreement that was illegal because it precluded him from speaking with regulators about possible violations of law. Mr. Oystacher’s alleged “spoofing,” a bluffing tactic used to manipulate the price of everything from stocks to bonds to futures, was the subject of a page-one article in The Wall Street Journal last month.
Tech Money Sends Funds on the Hunt for Unicorns (NYT)
The retirement accounts of millions of Americans have long contained shares of stalwart companies like General Electric, Ford and Coca-Cola. Today, they are likely to include riskier private stocks from Silicon Valley start-ups like Uber, Airbnb and Pinterest. Big money managers including Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price and BlackRock have all struck deals worth billions of dollars to acquire shares of these private companies that are then pooled into mutual funds that go into the 401(k)’s and individual retirement accounts of many Americans. With private tech companies growing faster than companies on the stock market, the money managers are aiming to get a piece of the action.
Greece Faces Decisive Week as Tsipras Is Set to Meet Merkel (Bloomberg)
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is set to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the second time in five days on Monday, at the start of a week that may prove decisive for Greece’s future in the euro area. The meeting in Berlin with the leader of the biggest contributor to Greece’s stalled 240 billion-euro ($259 billion) bailout is a precursor to make-or-break decisions Tsipras faces as his country’s financial predicament becomes ever more perilous. His government needs to spell out economic measures it plans to undertake as early as this week to unlock long-withheld aid payments that will keep the country afloat.
When the 13-Year-Old Picks a $14 Million Condo (NYT)
A year and a half ago, Skye van Merkensteijn was shooting hoops with a friend who lives at the Aldyn, a condominium-rental hybrid on Riverside Boulevard with its own indoor basketball court, climbing wall and bowling alley. Thirteen-year-old Skye was impressed — and envious. Well, his worldly pal told him, he just happened to know of an apartment for sale on the 21st floor. Skye went home, jumped online and called up a video of the property in question — a 12-room spread with a hot tub and private 37-by-15-foot outdoor pool. “When my husband, John, came home,” said Skye’s mother, Elizabeth van Merkensteijn, “Skye announced: ‘We’re moving and this is the place we’re moving to.’ ” Mr. van Merkensteijn, an investor, told his son he couldn’t afford a $14 million apartment. As for Mrs. van Merkensteijn, if you wanted her to leave the family’s eight-room apartment at the Beresford on Central Park West, she said, you were going to have to carry her out. In a box. Still, for a lark the couple strolled over to check out their son’s find...Skye came along to the closing a few months later.
Man says tattoo of ex-girlfriend's name, "ISIS," got him fired from Home Depot (UPI)
A former Home Depot employee says the company fired him over a tattoo of his ex-girlfriend's name -- "Isis," a name derived from a fabled Egyptian goddess. The letters of the inner-lip tattoo are written in capitalized form -- "ISIS" -- giving it the exact spelling of an acronym used to reference the Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a terrorist army of Sunni Muslim extremists who seized large swaths of land last year and publicized several beheadings of Westerners. "I honestly didn't know what the acronym meant until just recently," Kirk Soccorsco told CNN affiliate News 12 Long Island.
For Clintons, a Hedge Fund in the Family (Dealbook)
Since marrying Chelsea Clinton five years ago, Marc Mezvinsky, a money manager, appears to have settled into his life as Bill and Hillary Clinton’s son-in-law. He has regularly appeared at charitable events, once introducing the former president at the Clinton Foundation’s celebrity poker tournament by dryly saying, “You may have heard of my father-in-law.” And at the recent N.B.A. All-Star Game, Mr. Mezvinsky took a seat next to Mr. Clinton and his partner in charitable endeavors, Dikembe Mutombo, the former basketball star. Beyond the glamour, being part of the Clinton family has provided Mr. Mezvinsky with another perk: access to wealthy investors with ties to the Clintons. When Mr. Mezvinsky and his partners began raising money in 2011 for a new hedge fund firm, Eaglevale Partners, a number of investors in the firm were longtime supporters of the Clintons, according to interviews and financial documents reviewed by The New York Times.
Torrent of Cash Exits Eurozone (WSJ)
A wave of cash is leaving the eurozone, where returns on safe assets are infinitesimal, if they are positive at all, and headed to the U.S. and other refuges such as Denmark and Switzerland.
Biggest Wealth Fund Ready to Buy ‘A Lot’ of Asian Real Estate (Bloomberg)
“Tokyo is arguably the single biggest market in the world for real estate,” he said in a March 20 interview. While the fund doesn’t have an ultimate spending target, “we can invest a lot in Asia,” he said.
U.S. court authorizes Citigroup to process Argentine bond payments (Reuters)
Citigroup Inc said it has been authorized by a U.S. judge to process two Argentine debt payments, the bank said, which could ease tensions between the bank and the default-hit nation. The U.S. bank, which acts as custodian of some Argentine bonds, has been embroiled in a court battle between the South American country and a group of New York-based hedge funds seeking full payment on their defaulted sovereign bonds.
'They are going to eat him!': nuns stun Pope (Telegraph)
Pope Francis was mobbed by a group of overexcited nuns, let out from their convents during his visit to Naples. The nuns had to be reined in by the Archibishop of Naples after swarming the pontiff, to his evident bemusement, and showering him with gifts and greetings. Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe could be heard through the microphone urging restraint and making lighthearted commentary in a Neapolitan accent. “Sisters . . . Later. . . . well would you look at that. And these are the cloistered ones. Just imagine the non-cloistered ones,” he said, provoking laughter among the crowd gathered in the cathedral. “They are going to eat him! Sisters . . sisters!”
