For many, as we so well know, 2008 sucked royally and it would be lovely if the year could just be buried and forgotten. Now we get to move on and start anew.
May 2009 be much improved, with new jobs for those who are seeking them, profits for those who have suffered losses, bigger profits for those lucky enough to have scored last year, and happiness for all.
Correction: Make that mostly all. A pox on Bernie Madoff and his enablers and others who have been the cause of so much misery!
Predictably, Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and Chairman Win Bischoff will be "forgoing" their bonuses this year according to a Pandit memo to the troops. As if they really had a choice given the billions in taxpayers' money that's been injected into the loss-gushing firm. Bob Rubin also "declined" a bonus, but that's old news. Senior leadership committee members will be getting less than last year. As for future bonuses, a clawback is being adopted:
The bank will institute a “clawback” policy to recoup executive compensation based on financial reporting that is later shown to be inaccurate, Pandit said.
Exit pay will be restricted and “the five senior executives whose compensation is listed in our proxy statement no longer can receive severance,” said Pandit, who became Citigroup CEO in December 2007. Those affected executives are Pandit, Bischoff, Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden and Vice Chairmen Lewis Kaden and Stephen Volk, Hanretta said in an e-mail.
Citigroup CEO Pandit, Chairman Bischoff Forgo Bonuses – Bloomberg
Tags: Citigroup, Credit Crunch, Robert Rubin
Thank god. Remember the obnoxious hedge fund guy Stuart Sugarman who was attacked during his spinning class for being loud and annoying? Not only did he sue Christopher Carter, his attacker, only to lose (although that case spin-rages on), but he also sued Equinox Gym. Thankfully he lost this round too. According to the NY Post:
The case of Bernie Madoff’s missing $10,000 lifeguard statue has been solved. It was found “leaning against a hedgerow behind the Palm Beach Country Club on Lake Trail” by two pest control workers who recognized the statue from pictures on the internet. Fitting that the statue should be found so close to where Bernie probably schmoozed the literal pants of of his ill fated Palm Beach investors.
There was an attached note: “Bernie the Swindler, Lesson: Return stolen property to rightful owners. Sighed by — The Educators”
Bernard Madoff’s $10,000 lifeguard statue found on Lake Trail – Palm Beach Daily News
Tags: Bernie Madoff, Legal
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Tags: Bernie Madoff, Funds of Funds, Legal
Sitting in the catbird seat again as one of the few fund managers who is actually profitable for the dreadful and soon-to-close 2008, John Paulson is taking a well aimed (and well deserved) swipe at the many funds that are limiting or outright barring investors from pulling their money:
Tags: Credit Crunch, Hedge funds, Paulson & Co
We suspected on Monday that GMAC's silly 'we're still counting' excuse was bullshit: As it turns out, it was. GMAC announced that their debt swap deal is done, but they got far less than 75% originally required — only 59% of the GMAC notes and only 39% of the ResCap notes were ultimately tendered. Of course, as we all know, they got their TARP funds anyway. Here's the press release they put out:
Tags: Cerberus, Credit Crunch, GM
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Tags: Bernie Madoff, Legal, Politics
The GMAC debt swap tender date expired on 12/26, but they apparently still don't have a final tally of the bonds available to let the world know if the deal went through or not. Or so the company says:
Tags: Credit Crunch, GM
Bloomberg slipped this in just after the market closed on the day before Christmas: Harbinger is yet another large fund limiting investor withdrawals…
Tags: Credit Crunch, Harbinger, Hedge funds
Oy!: The NY Daily news suggests per a "Madoff acquaintance" (not even someone close, mind you, but an 'acquaintance') that his lawyers may argue that the Ponzi schemer who has already ruined so many lives may have not been 'all there' as he scammed his investors. "A mental break"? Or maybe "a multiple personality disorder". We don't buy that for a nanosecond and suspect that virtually no one else will either, if that's the route his lawyers are going to travel. We think it's insanity to claim insanity.
Tags: Bernie Madoff, Legal
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Tags: Bernie Madoff, Legal
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Tags: Bernie Madoff, Legal
Tags: Blackrock, Blackstone, Citigroup, Hedge funds
The lawyer who bilked hedge funds and others out of $380 million didn't work alone. Former stockbroker Kosta Kovachev was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud….
Tags: Hedge funds, Legal, Marc Dreier
Cerberus is the latest fund to limit investors exit — it lost 16% this year through December in its $4 billion hedge fund. And investors had submitted redemption requests in an amount more than 16.5%….
Tags: Cerberus, Chrysler, credit cards, Hedge funds
We're always amazed when fund managers simply close big money losing funds (where they don't stand a chance of collecting fees until they make up losses) only to start a new one with a brand spanking shiny new fee faucet that they can tap. With two funds sustaining 2008 losses of over 60%, Tontine Partners leader Jeffrey Gendell doing just that — closing them and starting over with a new fee generating machine. Tontine's new Total Return Fund will invest in stocks it thinks are undervalued, and won't use borrowed funds. According to Bloomberg
Tags: Fees, Hedge funds
Bernie Madoff now has actual blood on his hands: Sadly, we knew it was only a matter of time before we'd hear that someone would become so despondent over losses caused by ponz scummy Bernie Madoff. The first one has been reported, and it makes us just sick. Apparently Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, founder of hedge fund Access International Advisors was found dead of an apparent suicide early Tuesday after having lost possibly as much as $1.4 billion in Madoff's scam.
And Bernie sits, out on bail, in the comfort of his multimillion dollar home. How does this guy live with himself?
Tags: Bernie Madoff, Legal
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