Archives: February 2009

Marsal's Hammer

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 27, Categories: investment banks

It sounds like one of those bad credit card deals. But believe it or not, Lehman Brothers is charging some of its former trading partners 16% interest for failing to...

Stanford: It's Now a Criminal Case

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 26, Categories: scandals

The investigation into the alleged $8 billion fraud at R. Allen Stanford's financial empire is officially a criminal matter. Late Thursday, federal authorities in Houston arrested Laura Pendergest-Holt, the investment...

Law Firm Erases Its Stanford Ties

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 24, Categories: scandals

The law firm Hunton & Williams is trying hard to put some distance between itself and disgraced financier R. Allen Stanford. Up until a week ago, the national law firm...

Are Things So Bad That Financial Reform Can Wait?

Posted by: David Henry on February 22, Categories:

Should world leaders try to fix financial regulation before stabilizing the world economy? It is a question that divided some of the most influential people in economics late last week...

Stanford & Politics: Stop the Huffing

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 21, Categories: scandals

The political blogs are going ga-ga over all the political contributions that disgraced financier R. Allen Stanford and his employees have given to both Democrats and Republicans. In all, more...

Stanford Riches

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 20, Categories: scandals

We're starting to get a better picture of the many riches R. Allen Stanford has amassed over the years. And that's important because some of those assets may be used...

Here Come the Stanford Lawsuits

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 18, Categories: scandals

It didn’t take long for the investor lawsuits to start flying over the alleged massive fraud at Stanford Financial. Only hours after the Securities and Exchange Commission charged R. Allen...

Stanford Bests Geithner

Posted by: David Henry on February 18, Categories:

Perversely, alleged conman R. Allen Stanford did more in the past 10 days to boost confidence and stability in the banking system than U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. On Tuesday...

Is Millennium Bank Too Good to Be True?

Posted by: Adrienne Carter on February 17, Categories: banking

Matt Goldstein’s recent stories about Stanford Financial Group, which detail the investigations into the high-flying firm that boasts CDs with rates doubled the market average and assets of more than...

SEC Moves Against Stanford

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 17, Categories: scandals

The Securities and Exchange Commission took action to move against R. Allen Stanford's financial empire today, alleging that he and his companies were "orchestrating'' a massive $8 billion fraud. Regulators...

The Pressure Mounts on Stanford

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 16, Categories: scandals

Stanford Financial is beginning to feel the fallout from an investigation by securities regulators and federal authorities into the firm’s business practices. Over the past week, the firm controlled by...

More Stanford Props

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 15, Categories: scandals

Too often in the news business, there's a tendency not to give credit to others covering a story well. I guess it's just the competitive nature of the business that...

Stanford Scores Big with Sports

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 15, Categories: scandals

One can only imagine how professional golfer Vijay Singh is feeling in the wake of the news that securities regulators and other federal authorities are investigating Texas-born billionaire R. Allen...

Stanford's Failed Health Club

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 13, Categories: scandals

Texas-born billionaire R. Allen Stanford likes to portray himself as having been born into success. For years, he talked about being a distant relative of the founder of Stanford University--something...

The bailouts are so big...

Posted by: David Henry on February 13, Categories:

The U.S. government has never, not once in its 220 year history, paid out so much money as it is spending now to bailout the financial system. It didn't spend...

Stanford Props

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 12, Categories: scandals

The burgeoning investigation of R. Allen Stanford's fast-growing Stanford Financial Group is a story to keep an eye on. As we reported, there's good reason for securities regulators to be...

Geithner Feeds Zombies

Posted by: David Henry on February 10, Categories:

New Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner destabilized financial markets Tuesday by unveiling his long-awaited "Financial Stability Plan." Talk about a disappointment. It could have been so much more. The problem wasn't...

Scrambled Egg Turns Fed Into Prime Broker

Posted by: David Henry on February 09, Categories:

Federal Reserve officials are gathering around the broken loan securitization market the way all of the king’s men once gathered around Humpty Dumpty. They’re trying to put back together the...

The Next Bailout Battle

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 06, Categories: bailout

Much of the debate in the bank bailout battle has focused on helping the banks rid themselves of securities backed by ailing home loans--many in the last stage of foreclosure....

Madoff Village

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 05, Categories: scandals

The List is out. We're talking about the official list of purported Madoff victims--at least the ones that have come foward so far to cry foul. And the list of...

Bank of America...or Chaotica? (BAC)

Posted by: Roben Farzad on February 04, Categories: investment banks

hearing that prized talent is getting out of Dodge, the better to accelerate deferred compensation -- particularly as Washington regulates Wall Street pay.

Lehman Bank, Chpt. 2

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 04, Categories: investment banks

Lehman Brothers Bank, the small savings and loan operated by the bankrupt investment firm, is still open for business. But bank regulators have put some shackles around the tiny institution....

A Hedge Fund Gambles on Death

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 04, Categories: hedge funds

The market for exotic securities hasn’t entirely gone away. It’s just gone underground—-six feet under, to be precise. Hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management is plunging into life settlements—a market...

Cramdowns for All

Posted by: David Henry on February 03, Categories:

That Congress is talking about cramming down investors who bought bonds made from bad mortgages begs a question: Why not do the same to investors in bonds from bad banks?...

Citadel's Reversal of Fortune

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 03, Categories: hedge funds

Hedge fund magnate Ken Griffin's luck may be changing. Griffin's two main funds at Citadel Investment Management ended January up 4.75%. That's an impressive showing in light of the nearly...

Bailout Secrecy Has Got to Go

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on February 02, Categories: bailout

There’s been a lot of talk about the need for more accountability in the bank bailout. But if the Obama administration is serious about achieving that goal it will have...