There’s a bull market in thieves and dirtbags…quick – create an ETF! They just unearthed yet another Ponzi scheme, this time it’s a construction bridge loan scam called Agape World in Hauppauge, New York. Nicholas Cosmo, an ex-broker with a boiler room past and a conviction for securities fraud, has spent the last 8 years…
Madoff
Pigs at the Trough: Wall Street Takes a Bonus Anyway
In late December, ex-CEO John Thain snuck in $15 billion worth of Merrill Lynch bonus payments to executives and employees a month earlier than usual. He did this while his merger partner to-be Bank of America was in Washington telling officials that a $20 billion rescue package was essential for survival. The fact that anyone…
Girls of Ponzi 2009 Calendar
Girls of Ponzi 2009 Calendar Ruth Madoff January 2009 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Michelle Schrenker February 2009 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday…
This Just In: Art Nadel, Where Art Thou? (updated)
My, my, my…and I thought that all of these billionaire “money managers” actually earned the money they were wiping themselves with. CNBC just posted an alert that Art Nadel of Sarasota, Florida-based Valhalla Management is missing, according to his wife, who is “cooperating” with authorities.
Hot Links
Hot Links Weekend Reading: The always erudite Equity Private wrote two great posts this week on Dealbreaker. The first was a satirical how-to guide to escaping capture after a “Massive Financial Fraud“. The advice includes “Don’t Watch CSI” and “Have a Plausible Explanation for Why Your Body isn’t Found”. He also wrote a timely and…
Forget Chuck Norris: Here are the Harry Markopolos Facts
The spotlight on Harry Markopolos, the whistleblower who was ignored regarding the Madoff fraud, is about to shine as brightly as a supernova. As the gushing press and blogosphere begin their lionization of the brilliant and intrepid math whiz who saw through the deception, I thought it might be a good time to assemble a list of the following little-known “facts” from around the Internet about the man who could have been a hero.
Hot Links
Hot Links for Weekend Reading: Paul Kedrosky posts the 2008 words and phrases that should be banned from 2009 on Infectious Greed. My fave’s for banning for this year are Staycation, Carbon Footprint and of course, Bailout. Over on Dealbreaker, Equity Private posted the Top 10 Reasons I Invested My Entire Fortune With Madoff. Reason…
Doug Kass Rolls Out 2009 Predictions, Ignore Them At Your Own Peril!
In taking a page from Byron Wein of Morgan Stanley fame, Doug Kass has been listing 20 outlying possible events for the coming year for a while now and in ’08, he absolutely killed it. 60% of his 20 predictions for 2008 came to pass, including some of the more far-fetched ones.
Yesterday, Kass’s 2009 list came out…
Hedgies Still Hearing "Redemption Song"
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaRXuJ0eTDo] “Redemption Calls“, sung to the tune of Bob Marley‘s Redemption Song. Old clients, yes they call I ask me for the NAV. Minutes after I sold stock, into a bottomless pit. But my fund was made strong by the black box it was built on. We trade in this generation, leveraged to the gills….
Hot Links
Hot Links for Weekend Reading: December 26th, 2008
