We noted that he was mentioned in a 2006 Hamptons Magazine “Black Book” profile as one of their list of eligible Hamptons singles. Today Josh Birnbaum, formerly of Goldman Sachs, testified before the Senate Subcommittee in their Goldman Sachs mortgage market meltdown probe. Here’s his opening statement:
Tags: Dating, Goldman Sachs, Hamptons, Inquisitions, Politics, Singles
Tags: Apple, Books, Enron, Hamptons, Henry Paulson, iPad, Real Estate, TARP, U.S. Treasury
Tags: Fees, Hamptons, John Meriwether, liquidations, Liquidations / implosions, Real Estate, TPG
Big designer sales often bring out the obnoxious side of some people, and the annual Super Saturday in the Hamptons sounds like it was no exception. According to Page Six, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s wife didn’t think she should have to wait in line with the unwashed masses, making a big stink. Not exactly the behavior that hubby Lloyd is trying to instill in all of his Goldman Sachs associates who have big targets on their backs these days. (Blankfein himself isn’t known for his patience, though.) According to Page Six: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Conspicuous consumption, Goldman Sachs, Hamptons, Lloyd Blankfein, Wealth
Ron Baron, who shelled out $103 million for 40 oceanfront acres in East Hampton (the most ever paid in the US for a residential property) is in hot water after he apparently had a 3,000 year old dune removed without approval.
Larry Penny, the town of East Hamptons' longtime natural-resources
director, has accused the mogul of razing an ancient beach dune on the
property and gutting a large swath of protected vegetation.
"The dune was there, and now it isn't," Penny said. "Those are
ancient, 3,000-year-old dunes, just carted away. This is part of our
history here. It's a serious violation."
Penny, who alerted the town's buildings department about the
alleged destruction after viewing the area late last month, said Baron
failed to obtain proper work permits…
Ocean Affront – NY Post
Tags: Hamptons, Hedge funds, Ron Baron
Newly indicted ex-Bear Stearns hedge fund manager Ralph Cioffi’s Hampton digs were on display this weekend in the NY York Post. He’s said to have paid $10.7 million for his 2.5 acre, six bedroom, seven baths Hamptons spread that also features a pool and tennis court. It’s a stone’s throw away from John Paulson’s recently purchased "Old Trees" estate (see picture below). Cioffi used two residences to secure his $4 million bond, including homes he has in New Jersey and Naples, Florida, but not the Southampton home.
Cioffi’s Hamptons Hideaway – NY Post
Tags: Bear Stearns, Hamptons, Legal
With the summer season barely underway, page Six highlights the latest Wall
Street feud in the Hamptons. No, it’s not short seller Jim Chanos again
battling over shrubbery / the width of the path to the beach with his Goldman
Sachs heavy hitter neighbor Marc Spilker. This time its Jana Partners hedge fund head Barry Rosenstein practicing his activist craft in a battle with his neighbor Christopher
Clark, chairman of W.G. Clark Construction Co. At issue: the number of
cars parked by guests at the birthday party of Clark’s 9-year old kid that
spilled on to Drew Lane in East Hampton. It seems that Rosenstein (or
his maid by some accounts) had the cops show up over the illegal parking,
pissing off Clark. Apparently this feud has been brewing for quite some time. And with the summer so young, who knows what’s bound to happen next. We’ll stay tuned…..
Among the guests who scrambled to avoid a ticket were Allure editor Linda Wells, vineyard owner Christian Wolffer and designer Nicole Miller, who told us, "It was a mass exodus. Everyone ran out to cram their cars into the [Clarks'] driveway."
Another source said Rosenstein didn’t call the police, "his maid did," and that his wife,
Lizanne, went to the Clarks to say she was sorry, but they didn’t accept her apology.
Tags: Hamptons, Jana Partners, Jim Chanos
The Memorial Day weekend, the kick off for the busy Hamptons social season, seemed really subdued this year. We were dumbfounded at how light the road traffic was and how short the lines were to get into our usually super-crowded favorite Hamptons haunts. Store / restaurant managers that we spoke to seem hopeful but worried about what it ultimately all means. Personally, we like it when its less crowded — we LOVE going to our house in the off season, when there are NO crowds — but this year, with all of the fall out from Wall Street the signs seem pretty ominous and dark.
Tags: Hamptons
There’s no escape from the mortgage crisis, not even in the Hamptons, as the NY Post reports that some very tony homes are facing foreclosure, including one from a former UBS executive.
In the first three months of this year,
banks have launched preliminary foreclosure actions – known as lis pendens
proceedings – against a record 120 borrowers in East Hampton and Southampton
towns.Twenty percent of those borrowers live in homes that are worth more than $1
million, according to figures from the Suffolk County clerk."This problem didn’t even exist
before," said John Brady, a broker with Coldwell Banker in East Hampton.
"They used to pop up once in a while, and you wouldn’t even pay attention.
Now you expect to see new ones every week."
Tags: Credit Crunch, Hamptons, Real Estate
Itching to buy a spread in the Hamptons? Prices are dropping….
The median price declined 7.1 percent to
$882,500 and the number of sales dipped 29 percent from the last three months of
2007, according to a survey by appraisal firm Miller Samuel Inc. for New
York-based Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate. Part- time Hamptons residents
include Lazard Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Bruce Wasserstein and comedian Jerry
Seinfeld.“There’s caution because of more potential
layoffs in the future, so people are taking longer to make buying decisions,”
Miller Samuel CEO Jonathan Miller said in an interview. “We’re seeing a sharp
drop in sales transactions, which are likely influenced by the problems on Wall
Street.”
Tags: Credit Crunch, Hamptons, Real Estate
Josh Birnbaum, a Goldman Sachs trader who helped the firm into their bet against sub-prime debt, has left the company to start his own billion dollar hedge fund. Birnbaum was famously highlighted in Hamptons Magazine in their "Black Book: Wall Streeter’s Edition in 2006 as one of their hot bachelors….
Birnbaum, 35, confirmed his departure and
declined to elaborate on his plans. He has told colleagues he expects his new
fund will invest in mortgage assets, according to two people familiar with his
thinking who declined to be identified.At least 70 funds have been established
during the past year by firms such as New York-based Goldman, Blackstone Group
LP and Pacific Investment Management Co. to snap up cheap home-loan debt amid
the steepest drop in U.S. home values since the Great Depression. Birnbaum
helped Goldman offset losses on mortgage holdings and earn a record $11.6
billion last year.
Tags: Eye Candy, Goldman Sachs, Hamptons, Hedge funds
The cute hooker who took down now-former Governor Eliot "Client 9" Spitzer sure seems to get around. According to the New York Post over the weekend, Ashley Dupres also hangs out with short seller billionaire (and big Spitzer contributor) Jim Chanos who runs hedge fund Kynikos Associates. They met at a nightclub several years ago and since then she’s often been invited to his babe filled Hamptons parties. She seems to know him well enough to call him "Uncle Jim". (Uncle Jim??? nudge-nudge-wink-wink!). The 50 year old Chanos, divorced in November 1996, says he didn’t know that she was a hooker. The NY Post shows her (pictured, on the right) in Chanos’ Hamptons kitchen….
"I know her. She’s a nice
person," Chanos said by phone from the Bahamas late Friday night. "She
is one of many young ladies I have spent time with around town. I have had her
to my home [in the Hamptons], but I never dated her and I never introduced her
to Eliot Spitzer. I had no idea she was a high-priced call girl."During a clambake last summer, Chanos – who
is also on the board of Manhattan’s elite Browning School – introduced Dupre to
other partygoers as his house-sitter."She was the type of girl at my
clambakes that my housekeeper said, while everyone was out on the beach
partying, she was in the kitchen helping her with the dishes," he said.
"She’s got her heart in the right place, but maybe not her head."
Tags: Eliot Spitzer, Hamptons, Hedge funds, Hookers, Jim Chanos, Politics
Merle Hazard, country singer, meets famed economist Arthur Laffer. Laffer gives Merle the idea for a song, "In the Hamptons." "In the Hamptons" is a parody of "In the Ghetto," made famous by Elvis Presley and written by Mac Davis…..
Tags: Credit Crunch, Entertainment, Hamptons, Music
But the reception at Chez Kravis isn’t very warm. Go figure.
Tags: Hamptons, Henry Kravis, KKR
Headlines are rolling out on Bloomberg: Renaissance Technologies is down 8.7% so far in August and 7.4% for the year. It’s founder Jim Simons, said in a letter to investors that they’re staying the course, and that Renaissance "remains strong".
"We have been caught in what appears to be a large wave of de-leveraging on the part of quantitative long/short hedge funds" Simons said in the investor letter.
Tags: Hamptons, Hedge funds, Jim Simons, Renaissance Technologies
From Page Six:
We Hear . . .
THAT after Goldman Sachs honcho Lloyd
Blankfein and several associates at the firm bought houses on Sagg Pond in the
Hamptons, the body of water was jokingly renamed "On Goldman Pond"
We Hear . . . – New York Post Page Six
Tags: Goldman Sachs, Hamptons, Lloyd Blankfein
A 40 acre Hamptons estate on Further Lane was sold for around $100 million and according to New York Magazine the buyer is said to be fund manager Ron Baron. However, he’s denied it through his publicist:
Sources claim the $100 million buyer is mutual-fund manager Ron Baron, who’s currently constructing a house on eleven acres he owns down the street. Baron was in the news four years ago for hiring private security to keep trysters from the Two Mile Hollow gay beach off the dunes on his property. Brokers say it’s a good buy. “That’s a bargain,” opines Corcoran’s Diane Saatchi, who says Yahoo chief Terry Semel paid $43 million for his nearby fifteen acres last year. Through his publicist, Baron denied the purchase.
Is E. Hampton $100 M. Land Baron – New York Magazine
Tags: Hamptons, Real Estate
Seems like you just can’t get good honest domestics these days: The SEC accused Graham Lefford, the former Hamptons butler of media and entertainment mogul Robert F.X. Sillerman, of insider trading after he bought shares of a company that his former employer was acquiring.
Lefford, 44, turned his $600 investment into a $48,525 profit when he later sold the shares, the agency said.
On August 12, 2004 Lefford called his broker to purchase 5,000 shares of Sports Entertainment Enterprises, Inc., minutes after faxing a confidential document for his employer, media and entertainment mogul Robert F.X. Sillerman, from a poolside office, according to an SEC lawsuit filed in U.S. Court for the Southern District of New York.
Tags: Hamptons, Insider Trading
Hamptons home sales are off dramatically, down 18% in the first half of 2006. The question is, will prices follow? Even with lower sales, average prices were still up 21% in the first half of 2006 vs 2005. Paul Brennan, regional manager in the Hamptons for Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate commented:
“The real estate market was on a five-year binge and now everyone has a hangover,” Brennan said. “The frenzy is gone and the fog is clearing as we deal with Iraq, gas prices and higher interest rates.”
Tags: Hamptons, Real Estate
Hamptons Magazine has an article entitled "The Black Book — It’s not really about who you know — it’s about who you date." It lists pictures of elibigle Hamptons singles and notes their status with little legended symbols: Jetsetter? Big bucks? Heartbreaker? Party animal? And of course, there are the Wall Streeters. The magazine lists 4 — one a big bucks derivatives trader at King Street Capital, a trader at Goldman, a Lehman hedge fund sales associate, and a Harris Nesbitt investment banker. We can’t give you a link to the article because the magazine didn’t put it on the net but we do have the magazine…
Tags: Eye Candy, Hamptons, investment banking, Lifestyle
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