Archives: March 2009

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on March 31, Categories: bailout

President Obama delivered a stern and badly needed warning to the nation’s automakers about the need to come up with a credible turnaround plan, or prepare for a bankruptcy restructuring....

Stanford's Libyan Connection

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on March 30, Categories: scandals

Did disgraced financier R. Allen Stanford cut a business deal last fall with the government of Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi? Last November, Stanford may have met with a representative of...

A Mini Stanford

Posted by: Adrienne Carter on March 26, Categories: scandals

Turns out, Millennium Bank was too good to be true. At least that's what the Securities & Exchange Commission is claiming. On March 26, the federal regulator put the kibosh...

Stanford Gears up for a Legal Showdown

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

Alleged fraudster R. Allen Stanford is gunning for a fight. Dick DeGuerin, the celebrated Houston criminal defense lawyer who is now representing Stanford, came out firing verbal bullets today at...

Stanford's Birthday Wish: A Lawyer

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

Alleged fraudster R. Allen Stanford's seemingly endless search for a lawyer may be coming to an end. A person familiar with the securities fraud investigation against the Texas financier is...

Getting the Banks to Sell

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on March 23, Categories: bailout

There's one big problem with the Obama administration's plan for detoxifying the banking system: it won't work if the banks remain unwilling to take write-downs on troubled loans and securities....

London Calling

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on March 23, Categories: investment banks

The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy could do lasting harm to London’s brokerage houses unless the United Kingdom revamps its insolvency procedures. When Lehman filed for bankruptcy last September, scores of hedge...

No More Too Big to Fail

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on March 23, Categories: regulation

The Obama administration is on the verge of rolling out a series of new regulations to prevent a repeat of the still rampaging financial crisis. But it’s not enough for...

AIG's Mean Business

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on March 19, Categories: bailout

American International Group (AIG) is supposed to be gradually winding down its now infamous structured finance division., which was responsible for the near collapse of the once giant insurer and...

IRS Gives Goldman a Bear Hug

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on March 18, Categories: investment banks

It doesn’t rank as high on the outrage-o-meter as those AIG bonuses, but a group of investment funds managed by Goldman Sachs appear to owe more than $80,000 to the...

The Battle for Stanford's Bank

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

The fight over the remains of disgraced financier R. Allen Stanford's offshore empire is getting ugly. A US investor is asking a court in Antigua to appoint a liquidator to...

Stanford & Son

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on March 11, Categories: scandals

R. Allen Stanford, charged by securities regulators with running the second-biggest Ponzi scheme on record, is refusing to testify or cooperate with the investigation launched by his accusers. The Securities...

Just Don't Call it a Death Bond

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on March 09, Categories: hedge funds

It seems hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management may be a bit image conscious--especially when it comes to investing in life settlements. Back in early February, Unstructured Finance wrote about...

Mount Rushmore Comes to Bernanke

Posted by: Matthew Goldstein on March 06, Categories: credit cards

South Dakota isn’t a big state. In fact, there are 46 other states with more people than South Dakota. But for years, the state’s favorable state banking laws has made...

Britney, Make Way For Bernie

Posted by: Adrienne Carter on March 06, Categories: scandals

Bernard Madoff now rivals Britney Spears on the Internet. Google searches in the U.S. on the disgraced financier at times have surpassed those of the tabloid princess. His alleged Ponzi...