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Nov 2, 2009

 What Should Charlie Gasparino’s Memoirs On (Possibly) Smoking Dope With Jimmy Cayne Be Called? Posted by Bess Levin, Oct 27, 2009, 10:00am

 

 This is from the prologue of Charlie Gasparino’s book, in which the Sellout author discusses having dinner at a Chinese restaurant with Jimmy Cayne on August 5, 2007.When we sat down this was a different Jimmy Cayne than I had known for so long. I had always considered Cayne, now seventy-three, a youthful man. He loved to smoke cigars, and as he stated on more than one occasion he had also smoked pot (Cayne once attempted to hand me what looked like a joint in the Bear Stearns elevator).

From there Chaz goes on to discuss what in Cayne’s drug-addled mind was apparently supposed to be a diss (“…[Cayne] worked out regularly and hung out with clients and friends at San Pietro, where he spun tales about his Wall Street exploits— how he’d kicked the crap out of the competition, [like] the hated ‘Stanley Morgan,’ as he used to refer to the investment bank Morgan Stanley&rdquo, failing to revisit the matter. Why? I think you know why. How do you think Jimmy Cayne became such a huge source for Gaspo? This is Journalism 101. When we called Charlie up to press the subject further he told us, “My comment is simply this: I’m gonna save that for my next book.” Since CG has now more or less admitted to hotboxing that elevator like there was no tomorrow in pursuit of a story, the first in a series of many, many events just like it (enough to write an entire tome subject), we figured we’d better get to work helping him pen the definitive book on JC’s crisis to scrounge enough money to buy chips. Here’s a mock-up of the cover:

charlie gasparino jimmy cayne pineapple express.jpg

And some sample chapters:

Piss In This Cup: The guys go searching for a clean urine sample to appease the board of Bear Stearns.

That Stupid Fuckin’ Poster: Charlie goes absolutely postal over his inability to solve the Magic Eye.

Ma! Don’t Come In Here Ma!: Charlie takes Jimmy home to Rego Park to get high in his old room and look at “nudie mags.”

A Moment Of White Widow-Induced Clarity: Chaz and JC convince risk management to load up on “this can’t lose asset class,” subprime.

Who Is Dis Fuckin Guy?: Larry K. wraps his lips too far around the J for CG’s liking.

There’s No Way You’re DeNiro: The guys fight over who’s DeNiro and who’s Pesci.

Nobody Takes Us For A Ride: Goddamn Scungili Head: Gaspo breaks the ribs of a dealer who sells them schwag.

Funyuns: 100 pages on ‘em.All we need is a title (and if you know of any anecdote that Chazza failed to recall, please share ate this time). The Burnout is too easy.http://dealbreaker.com/2009/10/what-should-charlie-gasparinos.php

 

 

 

 


Bankers Taught How To Be Killing Machines

 last updated: 26 October 2009

Rex Kwon Do
 
 Clusterstock reports that bankers at firms like Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are said to have taken 'Target Focus Training' at the hands of martial arts expert Tim Larkin.

And Larkin is apparently off to Las Vegas in November, teaching investment bankers 'how to kill' as a method of self-defence. Larkin says: 'Investment bankers also need to be able to protect themselves against attacks with sharp-edged weapons, particularly when travelling to emerging markets'. The martial arts experts says that, when faced with one or more attackers, 'we have only five seconds to act to save our lives. Passivity and negotiation is not an option if you want to survive. Ultimate violence is'.

One banker joked: 'Stuff all this about defending yourself against emerging markets types. I'd go just to learn how to beat the crap out of all those bonus bashers!'.

But before they get too carried away, bankers should heed the tale of the 23-year-old martial arts experts from Kipsap County, who claims that he has registered his hands as lethal weapons in the state of Arizona. Last month, before he had the chance to defend himself, he was knocked unconscious by a 21-year-old drunk.

Finally, there's an interesting snippet in Charlie Gasparino's new book The Sell-Out on Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne's reaction when he heard in 1998 that his predecessor 'Ace' Greenberg (who continued to work at the firm) had donated $1m to a hospital so homeless men could access free Viagra. Cayne is said to have telephoned Greenberg on hearing the news, screaming: 'Are you f.cking kidding ? A million bucks so homeless men can j.rk off ? How does this make the firm look ? How does this make me look ?'

 
Bear Stearns' Begleiter loses $22m in World Series of Poker

• Former senior executive lost $22m stack of chips on single bet
• Steven Begleiter came sixth in competition, winning $1.59m

Former Wall Street exec Steven Begleiter playing poker

Former Wall Street exec Steven Begleiter playing a hand at the final table of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas Photograph: Laura Rauch/AP

A former senior executive from Bear Stearns crashed out of the finals of the World Series of Poker yesterday after losing his entire $22m (£13m) stack of chips on a single bet.

Steven Begleiter went "all in" with a pair of queens, after around 13 hours of Texas Hold 'Em style poker in Las Vegas. A rival player holding an ace and a queen matched the bet, and Begleiter's hopes of winning the world championship crumbled when the dealer turned over an ace – giving his opponent a higher ranking pair.

Begleiter, 47, was head of corporate strategy at Bear Stearns before the investment bank was rescued by JP Morgan. He won $1.59m for coming sixth in the competition, out of 6,494 players who entered.

In Texas Hold 'Em, players vie to make the best five-card hand possible out of the two cards held in their own hands and five "community cards" available to all. The first four community cards were 7, 4, 8 and 3, meaning Begleiter was winning until the final card proved to be an ace.

"I was one card from being back in the thick of it. I really thought the hand was mine," said Begleiter following his exit. "I'd almost prefer to go out like that – it's way easier."

After helping to wind down Bear Stearns' operations, Begleiter joined Flexpoint Ford, an investment firm based in New York. This was his second appearance at the World Series of Poker – last year he dropped out without winning any money.

Begleiter's presence in the final is part of what appears to be a growing trend of financial professionals turning their attention from the trading floor to the card table. According to Time magazine, the number of World Series players with a finance background is increasing, with Bob Slezak, the former chief financial officer of brokerage TD Ameritrade, finishing 15th in 2007 and hedge-fund operator David Einhorn placed 18th in 2006.

Jimmy Cayne, the chief executive of Bear Stearns, is famous for his love of bridge – even playing in a tournament during the final frantic negotiations over the bank's fate in March 2008.

The weekend's action whittled the event down to just two players: a 21-year-old professional poker player named Joe Cada, and 46-year-old Darvin Moon, a self-employed logger from Maryland. Play will recommence tonight, after which one of them will walk away with $8.55m.

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Posted: Monday November 2, 2009, 12:29 pm
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Lillian D. (41)
Friday November 6, 2009, 5:25 am
Wall Streets Long and Sordid History With Cocaine Mike Schuster Oct 27, 2009 9:45 am

Allegations against Jimmy Cayne and Bernie Madoff keep the connection alive.


Forget Armani, highballs, and Beamers. For decades, cocaine has been a prevailing vice among day traders, bankers, and brokers -- becoming so ingrained with New York's financial district that the corner of Wall Street and Broad is said to be paved with white gold.

So its perhaps not surprising that even todays bad boys of finance are finding themselves inextricably linked to the forbidden nose candy.

On top of the Ponzi scheme and death threats, Bernie Madoff was slammed with another lawsuit earlier this month while in the confines of his Butner, North Carolina, prison cell. Filed on October 20 in New York, the suit claims that Madoff orchestrated a den of cocaine-fueled iniquity beginning in the mid-'70s. According to the former investors linked to Madoff, the Pyramid King would often send certain employees to make a long distance pick-up from dealers in Harlem. Cocaine soon became so prevalent that the office earned the nickname "The North Pole."

Former Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne is also dealing with allegations of an illicit relationship with the white powder. Last year, the Wall Street Journal first reported his alleged marijuana habit, but it was Charlie Gasparinos book The Sellout, released last week, that first connected him to the hard stuff. Caynes old friend Phil Cohen recounts:

After a couple minutes of small talk, Cohen says Cayne reached down into his desk and pulled out a blue Bromo Seltzer bottle. (Bromo Seltzer is a white powdery antacid.) "What do you think's in here?" Cayne said, according to Cohen's recollection. "Bromo Seltzer?" Cohen asked, slightly bewildered. "No, it's filled with cocaine," Cayne said with a smile.
Cayne denies the account.

Of course, using drugs to get through the trading day is nothing new. Cocaine use within the gilded walls of the New York Stock Exchange dates back to such a bygone era, Freud was advocating the drug then. Digitally archived copies of The New York Times detail 1915 drug raids of company heads with offices located a few blocks down from the trading floor. Numerous links between the drug and Wall Street have emerged through the years -- including a high-profile sting that resulted in the arrest of 19 brokers in 1967.

Cocaine grew in popularity within the bathroom stalls of Lower Manhattan's banks and brokerage offices in the 1970s -- Time magazine famously referred to the drug as a "chic refreshment" in a 1973 article -- and hit its towering stride during the mid-1980s.

With cocaine well along its comeback trail, it wouldn't be surprising to find tiny discarded baggies in a Lower East Side punk bar. But a T.G.I. Friday's a block and a half south from the Stock Exchange? A tad out of the ordinary.

A raid of the chain restaurant in March of this year busted a well-known drug hook-up among Wall Street employees. Exchanges would be made in plain view -- albeit surreptitiously inside Friday's napkins -- but allegedly with the knowledge of the restaurant's management and staff.

A July article in New York magazine detailed the financial woes of the cocaine dealer post-recession, but it will take more than a financial crisis to cripple the decadence in the land of financial bailouts and golden parachutes.

Along with Madoff's recent connection to the drug, cocaine seems to not only hit the highest of profiles, but also span the vast hierarchy of Wall Street employees -- from the 16 brokers arrested in 1987 to CNBC's Larry Kudlow, who entered rehab and found religion to combat the addiction.

But really, would anyone doubt it?

Despite all the grief that the public understandably dispenses toward bankers and stockbrokers, solely handling millions or billions of dollars per day takes a massive toll on the human condition. Drive and alertness might be innate abilities, but finding a dealer willing to travel 30 blocks downtown isn't. Cocaine will always be a major player on Wall Street -- as it has been for nearly 100 years.

http://www.minyanville.com/articles/wall-street-cocaine-bernie-madoff-fridays-drugs-finance-minyanville/index/a/25132

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