Opening Bell: 3.29.16
Banker Accused of $25 Million Fraud Arose From Gilded Legacy (Bloomberg)
Andrew Caspersen, the banker accused of stealing $25 million, seemed to have it all, at least on paper. Scion of a family that built and sold a finance company for billions, Caspersen went from Princeton University to Harvard Law School, where students can read rare books in the Caspersen Room or study in the Caspersen Student Center. Until Monday, he was a managing director at PJT Partners Inc. He earned more than $3 million a year, prosecutors said in court, helping private-equity funds restructure. Now Caspersen, 39, is out of work and charged with what federal prosecutors describe as a brazen fraud.
Casino agent in Philippines says high-rollers brought in heist money (Reuters)
A Chinese junket operator in Manila said on Tuesday that two high-rollers from Beijing and Macau were responsible for bringing $81 million stolen by hackers from Bangladesh's central bank into the Philippines. Kim Wong, a long-time Chinese resident of the Philippines, denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of who masterminded one of world's biggest cyber heists, but vowed to give back a small portion of the money with him. He told a Senate hearing in Manila he would return $4.63 million in cash to a government watchdog investigating what appears to be a Byzantine money-laundering scheme.
Deutsche Bank hiring 100 staff to boost equities trading (Reuters)
The move comes as Deutsche, a traditional bond trading powerhouse, looks to improve profitability by shifting business to less capital intensive areas such as equity trading. The hiring process, which has started recently, will beef up operations in the United States, Europe and Asia and across product groups, with an emphasis on technology and electronic trading, the source said.
Fed's Williams urges U.S. central bank to stay on track with rate rises (Reuters)
The U.S. economy remains on track for a gradual path of interest rate hikes and fears over the impact of a slowing global economy and bouts of financial volatility are overdone, San Francisco Federal Reserve President John Williams said on Tuesday. "Others' economic fates do not spell our own," Williams said in a speech at the National University of Singapore on a trip to Asia.
Man pays $500 a month to live in a wooden 'pod' in San Francisco (UPI)
A man in San Francisco constructed a wooden "pod" in his friend's living room in order to save money on rent. Peter Berkowitz, a 25-year-old illustrator, shared a post to his blog explaining how he came to build and live in the wooden box. "Three weeks ago, with the help of friends who had touched power tools before, I started building a pod for me to live out of in my friend's living room," he wrote. Berkowitz pays $508 a month to live in the pod in the three bedroom apartment. $400 goes towards his rent and the additional $108 covers the $13,000 cost of constructing the pod. He acknowledged the oddity of his living situation, but argued that pods could be a viable solution to high rent prices in San Francisco.
Starwood Bidding War Escalates With Higher Offer (Dealbook)
After a Chinese-led group raised its bid for Starwood Hotels to $14 billion, the hotel chain’s other suitor must now decide whether it will prolong the bidding war. For now, Marriott International is sticking to its $13.5 billion offer, the company said on Monday, arguing that its proposal was solid while the competing offer led by the Anbang Insurance Group of China may not be able to close. Starwood declared Monday that Anbang’s latest offer was “reasonably likely to lead to a ‘superior offer,’ ” paving the way for Starwood to break its agreement with Marriott.
Exclusive: UBS, Credit Suisse interested in advising on Russia privatization (Reuters)
Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse are interested in advising the Russian government on several privatizations as long as the deals do not violate sanctions, three banking sources told Reuters. The banks responded to a request for proposals that the Russian Economy Ministry sent to Russian and foreign banks this month for advisory roles in the planned sales of a 50.08 percent stake in oil firm Bashneft (BANE.MM) and 10.9 percent stakes in both diamond miner Alrosa (ALRS.MM) and lender VTB (VTBR.MM).
SEC’s White Warns Directors to Be Vigilant for Credit-Market Turmoil (WSJ)
“Directors of funds should also be thinking about and asking fund managers whether these events could happen at your fund, how to prevent them from happening, and how to respond promptly and effectively if they do occur,” Ms. White told a conference of independent directors of mutual funds in Washington.
New York nurse loses license for taking picture of patient's penis (UPI)
An upstate New York nurse with the appropriate last name Johnson surrendered her license after she snapped a picture of an unconscious patient's penis. The New York Education Department announced it granted a request from Fulton resident Kristen Johnson, 27, to surrender her nursing license. The department said Johnson "did not contest the charge of moral unfitness in the practice." Johnson pleaded guilty in November to a misdemeanor charge of disseminating unlawful surveillance photos.