First Bayou, Now Discrimination Haunts Hennessee
Hedge Fund advisor The Hennessee Group has been having a rough few months. First, the firm loses major face last year when it comes to light that it steered $50 million of client capital into last year’s hedge fund disaster, Bayou Management. Now, the firm is the target of a discrimination lawsuit by a former employee who claims that she was humiliated and forced to resign after the firm’s principals belittled and slandered her over her pregnancy. “The suit was without merit, and we are confident that it would be dismissed,” said Hennessee’s lawyer, Louis Pechman, of Berke-Weiss & Pechman LLP.
Birthday Suit [NY Post]
Get Ready to Sell Those Ferraris, Bonus Boys!
The Brit tax collectors are salivating over a new windfall that may come their way as they go after big earners who’ve been skirting taxes through sophisticated options-based compensation schemes. Not surprisingly, it’s the finance types who they have in their crosshairs: “This is specifically targeting the bonus boys,” Stephen Quest, a tax partner at Grant Thornton. Lest you take this likely, this could have a devastating impact on the high-fliers: “It’ll certainly involve some people having to sell their Ferraris to fund this tax,” Peter Brown, the chairman of Independent Remuneration Solutions, which advises companies on how they pay directors. We feel your pain. We feel your pain.
Brit Bonus Boys Targeted [Daily Telegraph]
Financial Advisor Fees: Bend Over, America
The Motley Fool takes a swing at the financial services industry, pointing out that we spent $1,182 for every man, woman and child in this country last year on financial advisor fees. The total tab? $350 billion. That’s a lot of enchiladas, baby. Of course, you can’t read the article unless you shell out $149 a year to subscribe to The Fool’s Stock Advisor newsletter. Pot meet kettle, kettle meet pot.
Jamie Dimon: Type A as in Asshole
Man, we had no idea Jamie Dimon was such an asshole! The pugnacious banker is the subject of a long profile in Fortune this week that’s full of the kind of anecdotes that create legends: Shouting in meetings, insulting people, air-boxing. We also learn that the gazillionaire is such a tight-wad that he screams at his family members for throwing out a jar of ketchup before every last drop has been used. He also puts his daughters on a ration of one towel a week. What a guy! We’ve got one word for advice for his wife: Divorce. What good is all that dough if you have to put up with an egotistical control freak to enjoy it.
In This Corner! The Contender [CNN Money]
Money the Great Equalizer in High End Pool Tables
Interesting article in The Times this weekend about Blatt Billiards, which has been making high-end pool tables for 130 years. First we learn that, not surprisingly, Wall Streeters are responsible for a big chunk of the company’s business. “They come down from Wall Street with their bonus checks,” said Barry Dubow, Blatt’s fast-talking marketing man, explaining who his buyers were. “They can’t wait.” We also learn that these men of high finance are in good company: “We sell to doctors, lawyers, drug dealers,” Mr. Stein said. “Anyone with a lot of money.” An attitude the Wall Streeters can definitely indentify with!
Poetry In Felt and Slate [NY Times]
File Under S for Sketchy
One of the teenage girls that a 42-year-old father of five and former Cravath tax lawyer is sitting in prison accused of having sex with is now changing her story about her mother’s involvement in the case. The youngest sister, who was 13 when the lawyer, James Colliton, allegedly began having sex with her, first told ACS that her mother had pimped her out; now mom’s in jail and the girl’s changing her story to implicate her older sister, who was also sleeping with Colliton at the time. Colliton was indicted earlier this month for his involvement with the girls--which also included giving them booze and pot--that began in the summer of 2000 and continued until 2004.
Sis Pimped to Sex-Sicko [NY Post]
Unwelcome Attention for Tax Associate [Tax Prof Blog]
White-Shoe Firms Gets Unwelcome Attention [Law.com]
Cravath Lawyer Still at Large [Bloomberg]
