On top of all the other stuff- he’s gone and pissed off New York madam Kristin Davis, who Eliot Spitzer can confirm you do not want as an enemy.

Davis, as in, Eliot Spitzer’s favorite purveyor of prosties (and now woman who haunts his dreams). According to KD, DSK had her on speed-dial, and she’s outing him as a client now because he messed with her girls.

“He was a client of my agency,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “When men abuse women I’m no longer going to protect their identities.” Miss Davis, 35, who claims to have a long list of celebrity clients, said Mr Strauss-Kahn called her directly on her mobile phone and paid $1,200 cash for two-hour sessions in hotel rooms.

“He wanted an ‘All-American girl’, with a fresh face, from the mid-West,” she said. “A girl in January 2006 complained he was rough and angry, and said she didn’t want to see him again”.

[Telegraph]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Federal securities regulators are considering whether to let fast-growing companies use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to raise funding by tapping thousands of investors for small amounts of money, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Securities and Exchange Commission may adopt rules to let internet-age technologies be used in fund-raising. The move is part of a larger review by the agency into whether to ease decades-old constraints on how companies can issue new shares to the public. The new funding techniques, known as “crowd funding,” could usher in a new era of capital abundance for Silicon Valley’s startups.

The technique as spread from artists looking to fund their creative works to entrepreneurs trying to bootstrap companies without giving up control to venture capitalists. Typically, a company might raise $100,000 from an internet site where users could sign up to buy $100 worth of shares.

Crowd funding could be a cheap source of cash, competing with angel investors who specialize in giving seed rounds to start-ups. Since the amounts of money are small, the downside risk isn’t too bad for investors. But the trick will be in protecting the public from scammers who have no intention of following through on promises.

But crowd funding could also be appealing to larger companies that are popular with consumers. Those companies wouldn’t have to go through all of the onerous legal disclosures required under securities laws. Mary Schapiro, chairman of the SEC, said in a letter to a law maker on Wednesday that the agency has been discussing crowd funding with small businesses and state regulators. A petition allowing crowd funding up to $100,000 has been backed by 150 organizations and individuals.

In 1992, the SEC allowed small companies to issue shares valued as much as $1 million to ordinary investors without full disclosure of financial information and other legal limits. That effort was abandoned in 1999 because of fraud concerns.

[image credit: Small Business Trends]

Tags: crowd funding, SEC

Companies: Securities and Exchange Commssion

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

$123 million and a just under 800 people should do the trick.

“This year finds the S.E.C. at an especially critical juncture in its history,” Schapiro said in written testimony prepared for the Senate Banking Committee’s panel on securities, insurance and investment. “Dodd-Frank will require significant additional resources or a substantial reduction in the performance of our core duties.” The law granted the S.E.C. broad new authority over credit rating agencies, the vast and complex derivatives markets and — for the first time — many hedge fund advisers. Among other mandates of the Dodd-Frank Act, the S.E.C. is supposed to write more than 100 new rules, open five new offices and publish more than 20 studies. Quite simply, Ms. Schapiro said, the law has “added significantly to the S.E.C.’s workload.”

Yet the agency’s budget remains frozen at $1.1 billion…The Obama administration has proposed raising the agency’s budget by $264 million, to $1.4 billion for 2012. The Dodd-Frank law requires the S.E.C. to offset its entire budget by collecting fees on securities transactions. That means the agency’s funding would not cost taxpayers a dime, Ms. Schapiro said. The administration’s proposed funding increase would allow the S.E.C. to hire 780 people, 60 percent of which would be assigned to Dodd-Frank mandates, according to her testimony. Ms. Schapiro said the agency needs more than 100 new staff members just to focus on hedge funds. The requested increase is “designed to provide the S.E.C. with the resources required to achieve several high-priority goals,” she said.

Mary Schapiro Makes Plea For More Funds [Dealbook]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Are you a person who “likes to drink beer, drive fast cars, and get into more trouble than [you] should”? Do you have your eye on a Hummer, a lap dance and a six-pack but are running a little short on cash? Do you have a great idea to pitch people on a bunch of (fake) investments that include hedge funds, a fixed-income trading plan and movie distribution investment contracts but are worried that what with the lack of a prestigious university on your resume and your professional contacts only only coming from your job as a telephone solicitor for a long-distance provider, people won’t take you seriously, to say nothing of your goatee? Not to worry! Take a page from Christopher Love Blackwell’s playabook and you could be looking at at least $4 million for your beer fund.

A judge last week issued an emergency court order freezing the assets of Christopher Love Blackwell to halt what the Securities and Exchange Commission called an “ongoing offering fraud.” The fraudulent investments included hedge funds and movie distribution investment contracts, federal officials say. A fixed-income trading plan, the agency says, was the most popular offering. “It was also a fiction,” SEC investigators stated. Instead of purchasing or trading securities, the SEC says Blackwell used $720,000 of investors’ money for such things as entertainment in gentlemen’s clubs, child support, travel and a Hummer, Audi and other vehicles.

He is also accused of funneling more than $900,000 in cash to himself, relatives, friends and associates. He diverted investor funds to support his other questionable business activities, the government says. “Finally, Blackwell used more than $500,000 to make Ponzi payments — i.e., he used new investors’ funds to pay old investors,” the SEC alleges. In a taped pitch to an undercover law enforcement agent posing as an investor, Blackwell promised risk-free returns of 25 to 30 percent per month “with regularity,” the complaint says.

Blackwell falsely claimed academic degrees from prestigious universities, extensive experience as a trader and connections he acquired as an employee of Goldman Sachs and The Bank of Madrid. None of that is true, according to the agency. In reality, he had previously worked as a telephone solicitor for a long-distance provider and as seller of interests in a fraudulent oil and gas scheme, according to a federal affidavit.

Should investors get pissy, like the unnamed former Cowboys player did, when his promised returns didn’t pan out and he got suspicious that the $250,000 he wired wasn’t actually being used on a deal “involving the purchase and sale of jet fuel and an investment involving trading bank notes,” just forge a letter that saying such is not the case. Same deal if they question whether or not you really worked at Goldman Sachs– just photoshop yourself into a picture of Lloyd and his family on vacation and you’re all good. Unfortunately at this time Blackwell is unavailable to comment and provide more tips but if you can find him at his father’s house, where he’s been living, he’ll surely be happy to offer a few pointers.

SEC Accuses Man Of Illegally Raising $4 Million [Star Telegram]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Google (GOOG) has sued the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Wall Street Journal reports, asserting the the agency wrote procurement requirements for a new email systems that favored Microsoft (MSFT) over Google Apps. The suit, filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, asserts that he agency unfairly specified [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

And they said it couldn’t be done!

The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday that the agency will have to shift resources from other “equally deserving areas“ to approve rules from sweeping bank reform legislation.

“We are resource constrained at the SEC,” said Chairman Mary Schapiro. “While we will meet our deadlines, we will be shifting resources from other areas that are deeply deserving of our time and attention right now.”

She noted that the agency has roughly 105 rules to write, 20 studies to write and five offices to staff based on the Dodd-Frank statute. She added that it is an “enormous burden,” adding that the agency has an agenda of issues unrelated to Dodd-Frank that the agency was already engaged in, including reforms to market structure in response to the flash-crash. Schapiro added that the most enormous challenges are in areas where the SEC has never regulated before, such as new reporting and oversight rules for trillions of dollars in securities-based over-the-counter derivatives.

Schapiro calls creating rules an “enormous burden” [MW]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

AIG, US Agree On Terms Of Exit Plan (WSJ)
As part of the plan, the U.S. Treasury Department would convert $49.1 billion of preferred shares it holds in AIG into common shares and increase the government’s ownership stake in the company to 92.1% from 79.8% currently. The conversion, which could take place by early 2011 if AIG can meet certain conditions by then, would position the government to sell off its stake in AIG over time through a series of share sales in the open market. Before the conversion of Treasury’s shares can occur, AIG will have to repay a $20 billion secured credit facility from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in full. AIG said it plans to use proceeds from major asset sales and the upcoming initial public offering of its pan-Asian life insurance unit to pay down its taxpayer debt and terminate the credit facility well before it is scheduled to expire in 2013.

Touree Says SEC Can’t Sue Him Overseas For CDO Deal (Bloomberg)
The defense for His Fabulousness rests.

Democrats Finding Many Big Donors Cutting Support (NYT)
Democratic donors like George Soros and his fellow billionaire Peter B. Lewis, who each gave more than $20 million to Democratic-oriented groups in the 2004 election, appear to be holding back so far. “Mr. Soros believes that he can be most effective by funding groups that promote progressive policy outcomes in areas such as health care, the environment and foreign policy,” said an adviser, Michael Vachon. “So he has opted to fund those activities.” The attention of Mr. Lewis, chairman of Progressive Insurance, also appears to be elsewhere this year. Jennifer Frutchy, who advises Mr. Lewis on his philanthropy, said he was focused at the moment on building progressive infrastructure and marijuana reform. “That’s just where his head is right now,” Ms. Frutchy said.

France Blocks EU Hedge Fund Rules (Reuters)
France’s refusal to back a scheme to give foreign funds a licence to do business across all of the EU’s 27 states will scupper any chances of a deal between ministers on a new regime for the industry.

UBS May Resume Dividends in 2013-14, Depending on Swiss Rules (BW)
“The dividend commencement date is a little uncertain,” Cryan told investors at a conference in London today. “Sometime in the period of Basel III introduction we’ll be able to resume our returns to shareholders in the form of a dividend or even share buyback. I’d be expecting by 2013-14 to be in a position where we’re comfortably on track” to meet requirements “unless something extraordinary comes out on Monday.”

Spain loses AAA status, stands firm on austerity (Reuters)
Moody’s become the third and last rating agency to cut Spain out of the highest AAA category which has helped it finance its debt relatively cheaply. The one-notch cut had been expected and the agency said it hoped not to have to cut again soon, bolstering Spanish debt markets. But the agency also said a poor growth outlook meant Madrid would have to take further steps to meet its deficit targets in years to come.

Teesside Man Dies After Drowning In Pint Of Vodka (BBC)
In a statement read out by deputy Teesside coroner Tony Eastwood, he said: “Richard drank a pint of vodka in four seconds or so. “I did try to take the glass off him, but he turned his back on me, pushed me away, and drank it all.”

Asian central banks act to stem rises (FT)
“Just look at how many central banks intervened,” said Maurice Pomery of Strategic Alpha. “If central banks adopt a policy to buy their neighbours’ bonds to keep them less competitive, all hell could break loose.”

Infighting Besets Financial Overhaul Council (WSJ)
T. Geith v. She-Bair.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

The EU will drop two investigations into the Apple (AAPL) iPhone after the company allowed cross-border repair services and eased restriction on applications for the device, Reuters reports.
The European Commission announced the move over the weekend. The two preliminary investigations have launched in the spring. At the time, the agency [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

AOL (AOL) this morning said former William Morris Agency CEO Jim Wiatt is stepping down from the company’s board, but instead will be a “strategic advisor” to the company “on a wide range of issues, helping to expand AOL’s development of content, partnerships [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Global-Bank Deal Targets Reserves (WSJ)
Regulators have said new rules will help restore confidence in the global banking system. Banks have warned that such requirements could limit economic growth by crimping their ability to lend. Many bankers had believed their arguments were gaining traction, but the new limits regulators appear close to mandating are stiffer than some had expected in recent days.

Boehner Calls For Two Year Freeze On All Tax Rates (AP)
House Republican Leader John Boehner onWednesday proposed a two-year freeze on all tax rates and a cut in government spending to the levels of 2008, before a deep recession took hold of the economy. In a broadcast interview, the Ohio Republican said he was offering a “bipartisan” alternative to the package of business tax incentives and infrastructure spending that President Barack Obama was slated to announce later Wednesday in Cleveland.

Paulson & co Hit By US Economic Woes (FT)
The firm’s flagship $9bn Advantage Plus fund, which aims to profit from trading corporate events, lost 4.26 per cent in August, according to an investor, writing back tentative gains made in July. The fund was down 6.6 per cent in the second quarter. Paulson’s $3billion Recovery fund lost 9.13 per cent over the month, erasing its 6.5 per cent gain in July and compounding its 12.6 per cent second-quarter loss.

Goldman Sees $80 Trillion Emerging-Nation Stock Market by 2030 (Bloomberg)
The market value of emerging-market stocks may surge more than fivefold to $80 trillion in two decades, overtaking developed nations, as China becomes the world’s largest stock market, Goldman Sachs said. Faster economic expansion and growing capital markets may lift emerging nations’ share of world equity capitalization to 55 percent by 2030 from 31 percent today, Goldman strategists led by Timothy Moe wrote in a research report. Institutional investors in developed nations will probably buy a net $4 trillion of emerging-market equities, lifting holdings to 18 percent of their total portfolios from 6 percent now, Moe wrote.

SEC Looking At ‘Quote Stuffing’ (WSJ)
Mary Schapiro said the agency is looking at a practice others have called “quote stuffing” to assess whether it violates “existing rules against fraudulent or other improper behavior.” The practice involves trading in which unusually large numbers of orders to buy or sell stocks are placed in a fraction of a second, only to be canceled almost immediately. Ms. Schapiro said the agency is considering requiring traders to hold orders open for minimum periods.

Ryanair’s O’Leary Mulls One-Euro Toilets, Standing Passengers (Bloomberg)
“Why does every plane have two pilots?” asks Michael O’Leary, chief executive officer of Ryanair Holdings Plc, the largest low-cost airline in Europe. Wearing sneakers, jeans, and an off-the-rack short-sleeved shirt, O’Leary is pontificating in his office at the company’s headquarters on the outskirts of Dublin Airport. “Really, you only need one pilot,” he tells Bloomberg Businessweek in the Sept. 6 edition. “Let’s take out the second pilot. Let the bloody computer fly it.” What happens if the pilot has a heart attack? One member of the cabin crew on all Ryanair flights would be trained to land a plane. “If the pilot has an emergency, he rings the bell, he calls her in,” O’Leary says. “She could take over.”

Marilyn Manson Loses His Make-Up, Gains A Mullet (STP)
Interview reports that Manson is a “diehard” fan of HBO’s “Eastbound & Down,” the critically worshiped comedy starring Danny McBride as a washed-up former baseball star whose trademark mullet and angry face Manson is imitating in this photo. “Whenever I see Manson, he’s repeating entire chunks of dialogue and dressed like Kenny,” Adam Bhala Lough, who’s directing Manson in the upcoming film “Splatter Sisters,” told Interview. Lough went on to say that Manson dresses like “Eastbound” character Kenny Powers all the time, and provided this photo, credited to Manson himself, as “evidence.”

Hedge Funds Shrink In July As Billions Walk (Reuters)
The global hedge fund industry shrivelled a little more in July when investors pulled out nearly $3 billion (1.9 billion pounds) after the loosely regulated portfolios posted losses in May and June, researchers reported on Tuesday. Assets stood at $1.53 trillion, their lowest level since November 2009, according to data released jointly by TrimTabs and BarclayHedge, firms that track performance and flow data.

Hurd To Get $950,000, Eligible For $5 Million Bonus At Oracle (AP)
The biggest part of Hurd’s pay package will be the 10 million stock options Oracle plans to give him. The company said Hurd’s options will carry an exercise price equal to the market value of the shares on the date they are granted. While the filing did not offer a specific date, Oracle shares closed Tuesday at $24.26, which would value 10 million shares at $242.6 million. If he stays with the company, Hurd will be given options to buy another 5 million shares each year for the next five years.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker