Wall Street Folly

Did you think he’d ever really go away?: It’s official.The now infamous video resume producer ("Impossible is Nothing") and self-proclaimed expert in everything, Aleksey Vayner, is back.  He’s got a new website.   He’s got a blog (although so far there are only test entries.)  You can hire
him to speak to you (although that part of his website is "coming
soon").  And his story (and obviously, his legend) just keeps getting bigger.  At least that’s what he wants us to believe. He’s pushing his new book that you can preorder on Amazon:
"Millionaires’ Blueprint to Success".  (Well, maybe you could, if it
were listed on Amazon, but it’s not, at least not yet.  The link he provides leads to Amazon’s top page.)  And he tells us about said book.  Or will at some point, according to his website, since the Reviews, Overview, Table of Contents, Introduction and FAQ all say "coming soon…….)

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It’s hard to believe that a whole year has passed since the world (literally) was introduced to Yale student Aleksey Vayner, the ballroom dancing, skiing, weight lifting, investment banker wannabe who created what is probably the most viewed and most ridiculed viral internet video resume ever. Here’s the video that started it all, "Impossible Is Nothing":

You can also take a walk down memory lane and read all of our other Aleksey posts here.

Tags: Aleksey Vayner, investment banking

Aleksey Vayner keeps surfacing in the oddest ways.  This time, an alert reader (thanks!) reminded us that not only did the recently arrested hedge fund manager Albert Hsu work for Atlantic Philanthropies, but so, according to his resume, did investment banker wannabe Aleksey Vayner.  In fact, he worked for Hsu!  Excerpts from his resume are above.

Tags: Aleksey Vayner, Hedge funds, Legal

After watching the hilariously ridiculous video resume from aspiring investment banker Aleksey Vayner that went viral last summer, it’s hard to envision anyone serious who wants a job on Wall Street going the same route.  But Vault.com is looking for the next video resume star:

The infamous video résumé in which Aleksey Vayner shatters bricks with his bare knuckles and boldly refers to himself as a symbol of success made the Yale University student the laughingstock of Wall Street and became an example for young bankers of how not to apply for a job.

But despite the negative attention Mr. Vayner attracted, a large career services network focusing on the financial industry is now challenging aspiring bankers to compete for the crown of Wall Street’s best video résumé.

"We’re reclaiming the video résumé for the forces of good," a cofounder of Vault.com, Mark Oldman, said. "Clips of bench-pressing and pontificating about life philosophies won’t be rewarded."

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Submit a video resume (a la Aleksey Vayer) and snag an internship: In a contest that’s a promotion for the upcoming Will Smith movie "The Pursuit of Happyness", (based on the homeless to riches story of Chicago stockbroker Chris Gardner) internships with many major companies are up for grabs.  The companies include Morgan Stanley, NBC, Yahoo!, Gap, Inc, and the NFL.  Internet voting for the winners is taking place through today.  The four Morgan Stanley candidates are pictured.

Morgan will choose two candidates for an internship in its global wealth management division based on how many votes each applicant’s homemade video receives. If this sounds unusual for a bank, the whole exercise is really a lesson in corporate synergy….

A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman said the firm accepted Sony’s proposal because of the movie’s plot, based on a true story: Mr. Smith’s character turns his life around after accepting an unpaid internship at the retail brokerage firm Dean Witter, which Morgan acquired in 1997.

Personally, we got the biggest kick out of Frances J’s "Carpe Diem" video.  She’s and engineering student at Columbia and is pretty funny.  She sashays in, vogues, mugs for the camera, and even sings a little. 

Ready for Close-Up and a Bank Job – New York TImes

Tags: Aleksey Vayner, Morgan Stanley

What will Yalies be for Halloween this year?  It sounds like dressing up as Aleksey Vayner is going to be popular according to an article in today’s Yale Daily News.  Also in the article:

Charity Navigator has asked New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to investigate Vayner and his organization, Charity Navigator spokesperson Sandra Miniutti said Tuesday.

"We did report it to the Attorney General’s Office that we believed that a fraud charity was being run by that individual," Miniutti said. "We didn’t want anyone being misled that they’d be making a donation to a bogus organization."

A spokesman for Spitzer said the Attorney General’s Office does not comment on who it is investigating. But the office will investigate organizations that are reported to it, he said.

Yale officials aren’t saying very much about Aleksey, even though it’s Academic Integrity Awareness Week at the school.   According to the YDN, they won’t comment specificially on him and won’t be investigating him unless they receive a formal complaint from a professor or the police specifically charging a violation of Undergraduate Regulations.

"We don’t investigate students proactively," Salovey said. "Someone relevant would have to bring a complaint or change to our attention."

On Tuesday, Salovey helped kick off Academic Integrity Awareness Week with a keynote speech on the psychology behind cheating and ways to discourage plagiarism.  [HAHAHAHAHAHA!]

Vayner faces public criticism – Yale Daily News

Tags: Aleksey Vayner, Eliot Spitzer

Aleksey Vayner on Inside Edition talking to Deborah Norville:  The exchange is pretty funny.   She’s all over him when he says he’s "almost certain" that the skiier in his "Impossible is Nothing" video is him.   ("YOU DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS YOU?????"…"ALMOST CERTAIN DOESN’T CUT IT!") And he says he’d make the video again, even with the negative attention and mockery he’s been subjected to.  He said: "I don’t think I would have changed the concept of creating the video.  I might have been much more careful as to whom I sent it out to." (3:04)

Tags: Aleksey Vayner

Aleksey Vayner — the 23 year old butt-of-jokes Yale senior and originator of the now infamous "Impossible Is Nothing" video and resume — finally broke his silence to the New York Post in a story published yesterday.  And his press rounds are continuing.  Accompanied by his Lawyer, Christian Stueben, and his real estate developer sister Tamara, Aleksey broke bread in his first face-to-face grilling with New York Times reporter Michael J. de la Merced in a fascinating interview where he talks about his new celebrity status, which he’s not enjoying.  Feeling like a victim after the job search materials were submitted investment banking firms like UBS and then leaked, he says “This has been an extremely stressful time”.  He’s now on a leave of absense from Yale, and is camping out at his mom’s place in New York City.  He says he’s received thousands of mostly chiding emails, some of which have been threatening.

In the interview he claims:

• Most of the athletics in the video are of him; Questioned about a Craigslist posting where he was said to be looking for skiing videos, Vayner said he was simply looking for cameramen proficient in filming ski jumping.
• He says that The Yale Rumpus interview wasn’t a direct interview, but the writer giving his opinion.  The writer disagrees, saying that he was reiterating what Vayner had told him.
• His blamed similarities in passages of his book, "Women’s Silent Tears…" to text in other sites found on the web to the book being a "pre-publication copy".  [oy!]
• He had outsourced the design of his Youth Empowerment charity site to companies in India and Pakistan, and he wasn’t responsible for putting Charity Navigator’s four-star rating banner on it. [The tired "It wasn't me/I didn't know" CEO defense...double oy!]…

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Aleksey Vayner finally broke his silence yesterday, speaking to the New York Post.  He’s threatening to sue UBS if it was the source of his leaked video that’s made him a laughing stock.

"Institutions like this are expected to maintain complete privacy," Aleksey Vayner told The Post. "If a graduate cannot trust them with the privacy of their resumé, how can people trust them with their money?"…

"I thought it would help me get a job," said the native of Uzbekistan.

Instead, he got thousands of scathing e-mails from people who saw the video.

"It was shocking," he said of the response. "[It has] put me and my family under a great amount of stress and greatly affected future employment in a negative sense."

Apparently he has a real live lawyer now — prior names he’s said to have used in correspondence have turned out to be fake:

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From the fertile imagination of Leveraged Sellout: here’s a funny parody recommendation letter, faux penned by his "Impossible Is Nothing" dance partner – "Aleksey Vayner: Prolific at Life"

Tags: Aleksey Vayner

Aleksey Vayner continues to gain more exposure.  This morning The New York Post got on board the story, as well as additional UK papers, including the Daily Mail and The Sun.   In addition, early this morning CNBC showed clips from the now infamous "Impossible Is Nothing" video in a segment on YouTube.  David Wiedner also put out a piece on MarketWatch;  he "likes his style".

• WannaBe Banker’s Video Resume Backfires
• What a total merchant banker
• Possible is something: Commentary: Wall Street’s Citizen Vayn may hold some truth
• Hilarious video-CV makes student laughing stock of Wall Street
• How Not To Get A Job

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Aleksey Vayner’s myth continues to grow:  A reader sent us a link a Random Fact Generator, which now has a faux Aleksey facts (Thanks!).  You can even submit your own, and if they’re deemed worthy, they’ll be added.  Here are some of the "facts" that are up there:

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Aleksey-mania is continuing its march through the UK.  The Times of London is the latest publication to jump on the story:

CREEP of the month is Yale University student Aleksey Vayner, whose personal details, video, hourly modelling rates and cringe-making job application to UBS are now replicating in cyberspace faster than a Britney Spears porn video….

Not since Lucy Gao at Citigroup sent out her birthday party details has anyone been quite so reviled in investment banking for pompous, overweening misuse of the e-mail system. Incidentally, a glace at the Citigroup contacts list suggests Gao has moved on since.

Vayner by name – The Times of London

Tags: Aleksey Vayner

Earlier today Aleksey-mania spread to the mainstream UK press with The Guardian joining the fray – and linking to our humble site, no less. More below.

In other news, we’ve been receiving emails with links pointing to sites claiming to be attributable to Aleksey Vayner, but we’re not biting; we’re not gonna list the links because we suspect they’re fakes.  One cheesy site, which only had a handful of hits to its page counter last night when we checked it out, made supposed admissions about his sexuality.  The last logon showed as 10/10 which was doubtless when the Aleksey pretender set it up.  Nice try, but it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s not Aleksey.

And our continuing fun with Photoshop, that’s Aleksey with his good friend the Dalai Lama. 

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Hey Aleksey, if you can’t get a job with an investment banking firm, you might wanna give Donny Deutsch a jingle.  He said in an MSNBC interview with Rita Cosby (gawd, we can’t stand that woman’s voice!) discussing the colorful Mr. Vayner, that "I would hire this guy sight unseen".  He said of the video — of which they showed several clips — "This is hysterical".  People need to show their creativity, and to make themselves stand out.  "He did that in spades"…."He’s shown the ultimate selling point — creativity"…."10 years from now we’re gonna see  a really successful guy."  He also said that "he’s not the brunt of jokes…he’s kind of making fun of himself."  Clearly Donny hasn’t read much of Aleksey’s wacky claims, or kept up to date with the fraud allegations that he faces over his charitable site, his investment website and various apparent acts of plagiarism.

And yes, we’re having more fun with Photoshop. 

Yale Senior uses resume tape to job hunt – MSNBC

Tags: Aleksey Vayner, Donny Deutsch

The latest developments:  YouTube removed the "Impossible is Nothing" video that IvyGate uploaded.  Now it’s on Veoh, and we also have it here.  The IvyGate crew spoke to pro bono lawyers, who give them hope that they have a valid fair use claim for the video.

As you can see here (and in some earlier posts), we’ve been having some fun with Photoshop.

And the story continues to break to new sources including US News and World Report (which noted that IvyGate thinks they’ve found the next Kaavya Viswanathan) and Fox News:

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So much of what we see of Aleksey Vayner’s work seems to have been "borrowed" from other sources — the text of his investment website, passages from his book "Women’s Silent Tears", even the "cease and desist" letter that he sent to IvyGate.  So it’s not exactly a shocker that the name of his now infamous video also wasn’t exactly original either.  It’s an Adidas tag line.  Here’s one of the "Impossible is Nothing" videos for Adidas featuring David Beckham et.al.  (it *is* a pretty slick commercial, especially if you’re a soccer fan)   (1:00)

Tags: Aleksey Vayner

EVERYBODY INTO THE POOL!!!! Harvard’s now joining in the Aleksey Vayner fray with a post on the Ivy Crimson blog.  No new ground broken, it’s mostly is a rehash of the Yale Daily News article posted earlier. But there are now more people at the growing-exponentially-by-the-nanosecond party. When we put out our first story on Friday morning did we say this thing might be the next Lucy Gao-like viral sensation?

MEET ALEKSEY VAYNER, a Yale senior whose glorious online video has already made its way into your inbox, if your friends are the type who are always sending you entertaining links. "IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING," the video declares as Vayner extols his many talents: weightlifting, tennis, ballroom dancing, karate. Of course, impossible is only nothing when you’re making it all up, which it appears Vayner has. From a fake charity to a fake investment company to a plagiarized book on the Holocaust, very little about Vayner holds up on closer inspection. The YDN finally picks up on the story today with a rundown of his half-truths and outright lies—allegedly, of course.

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This morning’s Yale Daily News has an article on Aleksey Vayner which starts off talking about the questionalble claims made on his "fake charity" site called "Youth Empowerment Strategies".  But the most interestesting parts of the story are the tidbits from fellow Yalies on his ability to spin tall tales:

Some Yalies said they think Vayner’s attempts to pass himself off as someone he is not are reprehensible, but others said they think the outrage over the resume and fabricated charity is unwarranted.

Daniella Berman ‘07, who knows Vayner through the Yale Ballroom Dance Team, said she has heard "outlandish" stories about Vayner both from him and from other students. Among the claims she said she has heard is one that Vayner is one of four people in the state of Connecticut qualified to handle nuclear waste.

Berman said that while she thinks that kind of claim is fairly harmless, she thinks Vayner crossed a line by misrepresenting himself to a potential employer.

Nuclear waste?  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

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The legend of Aleksey Vayner is now international.  Late yesterday Dow Jones Newswires picked up his story which was in turn picked by more papers here and internationally, under different headlines(see below).  "He single-handedly decreased trading volumes over the last two hours of the day because everyone was laughing too hard," one hedge-fund analyst joked Friday." The story was mostly a rehash of what we already know, but there were a couple of new pieces of information, including a quote from UBS, which might have been involved in leaking Vayner’s resume as well as hints as to what Vayner is going to do:

UBS spokesman Kris Kagel said the firm is looking into the forwarding of the email.
"We’re looking at whether it did come from UBS and if so, we’ll take action," he said. "As a firm we obviously don’t circulate (job applications) to the public."

He’s already thinking about litigation:

Vayner declined to comment, citing "too many lawsuits" about "public disclosure of private" matters.

Yesterday he threatened the blog IvyGate with litigation although they’re not terribly scared.  They’ve determined that "he copied and pasted it from the first Google hit for "cease and desist letter," right down to the "very truly yours" signoff."  But we’re guessing that their pockets aren’t very deep anyway.  Better and more serious targets would be the deep pocketed source of the leaks, like UBS, which could have real liability if they were involved.  While Mr. Vayner’s dreams of an investment banking career may now be slim — especially given some of the whoppers he seems to have told — we wouldn’t be surprised to hear of a payment out of the original sources of the leaks for the pain, suffering and humiliation that he’ll claim he’s suffered for his being outed so publicly.

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More news this morning on Aleksay Vayner.  The folks at IvyGate have been busy bees, uncovering information on Mr. Vayner, and he’s not liking it.  First off, there seems to be some question as to whether he lifted some of the content for his VaynerCapital.com website from another investment site in Denver.  IvyGate points to suspiciously similar language.  The same holds true for his self-published book on the Holocaust which they say lifted an entire passage from the Holocaust Encyclopedia. (Vayner has since removed his book from the publisher’s website so you now can’t compare). And they also say that they’ve done some research into his charity — Youth Empowerment Strategies — where they allege he’s making fraudulent claims:

Vayner’s site has a "Charity Navigator Four Star Charity" logo from Charity Navigator, an organization that ranks good charities and weeds out frauds. We called them this morning. "Oh, we’ve heard of them," Leonie Giles, a program analyst there, said immediately. They asked Aleksey’s site (which lists a non-existant Manhattan address on its "Donate Another Way" page, btw) to take down the fake "Four Star" logo two months ago, and are considering legal action against them. Giles recommended we contact the freaking Connecticut attorney general.

In response, Vayner is fighting back. IvyGate has received a cease and desist letter from Mr. Vayner over their uploading his video to YouTube, disclosing private information (much of which seems to have come from the investment banking firms he had contacted), etc., which you can see here. 

This thing keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.

Tags: Aleksey Vayner

The Aleksey Vayner story just got a little bigger.  First there were the sniggering emails spreading Aleksey’s video and resume around Wall Street last week.  Then the blogs like us picked it up.  The only missing ingredient for this thing to go Lucy-Gao-viral was getting the mainstream press involved.  That may be starting as the New York Sun picked up the story this morning:

Thousands of Ivy Leaguers circulate their resumes each year to New York’s investment banks, but few garner as much attention as Aleksey Vayner, who last week submitted an 11-page resume and video to UBS’s human resources department.

By the week’s end, the Yale University senior’s video had raised scores of eyebrows and sparked much laughter in nearly every firm on Wall Street.

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Tags: Aleksey Vayner, Lucy Gao

Tags: Aleksey Vayner

One of our readers left a comment late Friday pointing to a 2002 article in a Yale magazine called "Rumpus" that profiled Aleksey Vayner, investment banker wannabe, and Lucy Gao’s new viral email successor.  But his name was different back then.  It was Aleksey Garber.  And boy is the story bizarre.  Vayner / Garber claims an extremely colorful past including:  His education at a Tibetan monastery in Uzbekistan.  His father’s job with the German mafia. Connections to the Russian mafia.  The CIA.  Martial Arts instructor extraordinaire.  Tennis instructor to the stars.  Columbia freshman.  It goes on and on.  He’s even claimed to have worked at Goldman Sachs — everyone took lessons from him at the Roosevelt Island Tennis club including a Goldman President who got him a job:

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Aleksey Vayner, the investment banker wannabe from Yale, whose video seems to be spreading virally  à la Lucy Gao, may have taken his site down, but the folks at IvyGate were too fast for him.  The video part of his site that we described in an earlier post is on YouTube Veoh (YouTube pulled it). And ya gotta love cached links.  Despite Vayner’s site having been taken down, there are still some remnants lingering — here’s his background page and his modeling day rate and stats.  IvyGate also has a copy of a letter he sent to UBS along with his resume. (For more news, click the "Aleksey Vayner" link below.

Tags: Aleksey Vayner, Lucy Gao