2nd banker in hotel sex bust (NYP)
Mahmoud Abdel-Salam Omar — the 74-year-old former chairman of Egypt’s Bank of Alexandria — allegedly groped and “gyrated” against the maid in Room 1027 at The Pierre hotel on Fifth Avenue, a law-enforcement source told The Post. He was wearing a bathrobe at the time, but it was not clear what, if anything, he had on under it.

Greek Aid Package To Be Decided By June (Bloomberg)
Inspectors from the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank are set to wrap up a review of Greece’s progress in meeting the terms of last year’s 110 billion-euro ($158 billion) bailout in coming days. The EU will then formulate its plan for further aid to Greece, which remains shut out of financial markets a year after the rescue package.
“We are waiting for their final judgment,” Juncker, who is also Luxembourg’s prime minister, said yesterday in Paris after meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. “Their position will partly determine our position, so it’s too early. We will try to solve the Greek problem by the end of June.”

Japan recovery takes hold, but debt downgrade looms (Reuters)
Japan’s economy offered more signs of recovery from the deadly March earthquake on Tuesday, but Moody’s ratings agency warned both growth and government action may fall short of what is necessary to bring Tokyo’s ballooning debt back under control.

Goldman Sachs names ex-Sen. Gregg to advisory post (Businessweek)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Friday that it has hired former U.S. Senator Judd Gregg as an international adviser.

Libya’s Goldman Dalliance Ends in Losses, Acrimony (WSJ)
In early 2008, Libya’s sovereign-wealth fund controlled by Col. Moammar Gadhafi gave $1.3 billion to Goldman Sachs Group to sink into a currency bet and other complicated trades. The investments lost 98% of their value, internal Goldman documents show…In an effort to make up for the losses, Goldman offered Libya the chance to become one of its biggest shareholders, according to documents and people familiar with the matter.

Lagarde has G8 backing (Reuters)
G8 leaders all back French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde’s bid to run the IMF, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Sunday, as she attacked a call to investigate her role in a 2008 legal case that may harm her chances.

Wall Street ‘mispriced’ LinkedIn’s IPO (FT)
Peter Thiel, an early Facebook investor and co-founder of PayPal, said banks did not understand the full potential of the latest internet companies and warned that the next Silicon Valley darlings would negotiate hard when their turn comes to go public. “Whenever a stock price goes up as much as it does with LinkedIn, you assume the IPO was mispriced and the bankers screwed up,” said Mr Thiel, an investor in LinkedIn since its launch. “There continues to be a certain antipathy by Wall Street banks toward Silicon Valley companies where they don’t quite believe it’s real.”

At I.M.F., a Strict Ethics Code Doesn’t Apply to Top Officials (NYT)
At the International Monetary Fund, there is one set of ethics guidelines for the rank-and-file staff and another for the 24 elite executive directors who oversee the powerful organization. Over the last four years, the fund has tightened internal systems for catching ethical misconduct among its 2,400 staff members, establishing a telephone hot line for complaints like harassment; publishing details of complaints in an annual report; and empowering an ethics adviser to pursue allegations, which last year led to at least one dismissal. But the fund’s board members remain largely above these controls. The ethics adviser, for example, is not able to investigate any of them.

Strauss-Kahn assembles crisis team to fight back (Reuters)
Faced with a legal and media onslaught, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is pulling together a crack team of investigators, former spies and media advisers to fight back against charges he sexually assaulted a hotel chambermaid.

‘Bad-tipper’ Strauss-Kahn has food, patio furniture delivered; turns away balloons (NYP)
“They never tip,” said a sweaty Danny Cotto after dropping off a box from Espresso Coffee at around 6 p.m. at the luxe TriBeCa town house…He took in a six-bag grocery order that included healthy fare like boneless, skinless chicken breast, Lean Cuisine meals and Crystal Light.

DSK using man-power to clean up (NYP)
Dominique Strauss-Kahn has hired an all-male cleaning staff to do his dirty work at his TriBeCa townhouse, where he’s awaiting trial for allegedly forcing himself on a hotel maid.

Concerns mount over rising buy-out debt levels (FT)
Joseph Schull, European head of US private equity group Warburg Pincus, warned that his industry should not repeat mistakes made during its heyday in 2006 and 2007, when some companies were bought with excessive loan packages…Howard Marks, chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, a US private equity group investing in distressed assets, wrote in a note to clients last week: “In most regards the capital markets – and investors’ tolerance of risk – are retracing their steps back in the direction of the bubble-ish pre-crisis years.”

A FrontPoint Founder Tries Again With a New Firm (DealBook)
After Mr. Duff helped to orchestrate the sale of FrontPoint to Morgan Stanley in 2006, he struck out on his own, starting Duff Capital Advisors…With the markets in disarray, clients never materialized and Duff Capital shut down in May 2009…Now, Mr. Duff, a former top executive at Morgan Stanley, is trying again. His new firm, Massif Partners — which like FrontPoint has a name that refers to his passion for mountain climbing — is building off the blueprint of Duff Capital and focusing on pensions.

Russia’s Central Bank Signals Interest-Rate Pause After Surprise Increase (Bloomberg)
Bank Rossii, the central bank, yesterday raised its overnight deposit rate to 3.5 percent from 3.25 percent, surprising 11 of 20 economists in a Bloomberg survey. It left the refinancing and overnight repurchase rates unchanged after a quarter-point increase in April, saying in a statement that borrowing costs may be at the level necessary to tackle inflation and promote growth “for the nearest months.”

For Insurers, Bad—but Not Bad Enough (WSJ)
The deadly outbreak of tornadoes across the U.S. since late April is expected to cost the insurance industry more than $5 billion, according to disaster-modeling firm Eqecat. That puts weather-related losses in the U.S. so far this year in the range of $13 billion to $15 billion, three to four times a typical year. Add in catastrophes like the earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, and disaster-related losses for the industry are estimated to be upward of $50 billion this year…”I think things are now bad enough to be good enough,” says Meyer Shields, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. Bad enough, that is, that the industry will be forced to start raising premiums later this year or early next. That would immediately benefit major insurance brokers such as Aon Corp. and Marsh & McLennan Cos. Indeed, their shares are up more than 10% this year, roughly double the broader market.

Analyst: Chipotle expands test of chorizo (NRN)
Chipotle Mexican Grill has expanded a test of a new chorizo sausage that, if rolled out, would be the chain’s first new meat option in years, a securities analyst said Friday.


Hackers Disrupt PBS Web Site and Post a Fake Report About a Rap Artist (NYT)
The PBS Web site briefly carried a fake article claiming that the famed rapper Tupac Shakur was alive and living in New Zealand after a group of hackers took over the organization’s computer systems on Saturday night.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

CNBC reports that Lenny Dykstra’s Sherwood mansion, which he bought from Wayne Gretzky in 2007 and was thrown out of 2008, has been sold to an unnamed buyer for an undisclosed amount (it was sold by Index Investors, the second lienholder, which bought the place out of foreclosure last fall). At this time we’d like to take a walk down memory lane, stopping to remember the high points of Lenny’s history with the manse, which will hopefully be preserved when whoever bought the place does the right thing and turns it into a Dykstra museum.

August 29, 2007: Dykstra buys the house from Wayne Gretzky. It includes 8 bedrooms, a guest house, a carriage house, views of the Sherwood Country Club and Lake Sherwood itself, a pool and a tennis court. Nails had always wanted that house; Gretzky, knowing this, told him “‘I’ll sell it to you for 23 mill.” Nails said “Have another drink, man. I’ll pay 17, no money down.” He ended up paying $18.5.

June 10, 2008: Having fallen on money troubles so serious that he was no longer able to fly private, LD tried selling the place. Figuring he could see a 33% return on a house he’d owned for ten months, which he was putting on the market in California at a time when things weren’t going too hot for real estate, Lenny asked for $24,950,000.

March 2009: With no one ponying up the cheddar for the place (despite Dykstra’s genius idea to throw in some extras to clinch the deal, the coup de grace of the package being LD’s “Discarded Dips Of Distinction,” a collection of chewing tobacco from the great moments in his illustrious career, tastefully encased in a white gold-flecked display case), private equity firm Index Investors, which granted Dykstra a $850,000 bridge loan the prior November, secured by the 8-bedroom manse, files foreclosure papers on Dykstra’s pad last month, as does Washington Mutual, on account of Nails defaulting on his $12 million mortgage.

July 9, 2009: Dykstra officially files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and his manse goes to the auction block. Despite the loss of his baby and financial issues, Nails remains in good spirits, telling reporters that Donald Trump has filed for bankruptcy 6 times and urging creditors to “bring it on, bros.”

In a fit of genius before leaving, LD decides to tear through the place with a bat and a pair of pliers, ripping up floors and doing god knows what with toilets, which resulted in the following crime scene report:

The palatial estate was pockmarked with torn up flooring, holes in walls, missing toilets, as inspectors have tried to determine the extent of the problem. (Dykstra is also demanding the insurance company make good on its policy to put him up in a temporary residence because he says the house is now unlivable. “I don’t mean to be crude,” he says, “but where do they expect me to go to the bathroom?”)

August 25, 2009: Dykstra tells CNBC he’s been living in his car.

January 15, 2010: LD vows he will not go down without a fight. Auctions off balls and phone-sex on Craiglist.

March 17, 2010: Dykstra sues JPMorgan for “predatory lending practices.”

March 30, 2010: Dykstra drops suit against JPMorgan.

August 6, 2010: “The attorney for the second lienholder says Dykstra has moved back into the mansion and won’t let brokers show the home. ”

October 6, 2010: Dykstra “plots financial comeback”

December 17, 2010: “I’m about one thing,” Lenny Dykstra tells Howard Eskin in minute one of a glorious interview on 610 AM Sports Talk in Philadelphia. “And that’s walking the talk.” The talking that Dykstra has been doing has centered around two things: 1) taking on what he describes as the “criminals” at JPMorgan, whose “predatory lending” practices caused him to be foreclosed on and 2) his big comeback. Both points are addressed in the chat. With regard to the former, he not only plans to take JPM to court, but he’s made it his mission to protect people like himself from these “crooks.” To that end, LD has started a “mortgage forensic research firm,” known as Predatory Lending Recovery, LLC, which despite not yet having any clients and only one testimonial, Len claims is a billion dollar business.

The takeaway here? The unnamed buyer must be a certain legendary investor now flush with cash, who does not bounce checks to prostitutes.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Earlier this morning, Squawk on the Street had a little interview with Blackstone chief Stephen Schwarzman, live from Waldorf Astoria, where the Yale CEO Summit is taking place. The chat was conducted by Tyler Mathisen, with his colleagues patched in from the mothership in Englewood Cliffs. Everyone was very excited to have Steve-o on and things started off friendly enough. David Faber had a question about Dynegy. Erin Burnett wanted to know about investing opportunities abroad. And Mathisen and Schwarzman, whose firm owns the Waldorf, had a cute little repartee going about Steve delivering towels to Tyler’s room and leaving a mint on his pillow (given how game Schwarzman was to play along, and the diversity of the The ‘Stone’s companies, now might be a good time to nominate a certain someone as the next guest on Undercover Boss).

Then Mark Haines had something to say.

Haines: “Mr. Schwarzman. You’ve said you think the tax compromise will boost economic activity from one half to one percent. How do you figure that’s going to happen?”

Schwarzman: “I think you’re going to have more people with more money. Without taxes going up you’re going to have a variety of different incentives with cutting payroll taxes and there are other incentives in this package. And I think the economy will respond positively to that.”

Haines [internally smirking at how Schwarz had played right into his hand]: “Huh. Cuz the Congressional Budget Office it will increase employment by no more than 1/10t of one percent. And we are asking Americans to take on $850 billion more in debt so RICH PEOPLE…[you] can continue to pay less in taxes.”

[This was when someone at CNBC should've had the foresight to cut away to the reaction shots on Mathisen, Faber and Burnett's faces, and a producer considered screaming "cut his mic!"]

Schwarzman: “Well, you know, this is one of those situations where there is no perfect answer. You have now very large amount of fiscal stimulus. Nobody likes the debt. You can take either side of that argument; I don’t really want more debt but the faster the economy grows, the more taxes people will ultimately paying because everyone’s earnings will be higher. Over time–”

Haines: “A year from now- oh, sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt I thought you were done with that sentence. So, a year from now, if the economy isn’t growing, will you admit you were wrong?”

Schwarzman: “I’m always comfortable admitting I’m wrong, I don’t have a problem with that.”

Haines: “Me too. Out of necessity.”

Moment at which we stopped watching and started picturing the look on Haines’ face when he finds out he’s no longer welcome at Blackstone-owned Michaels craft store, Legoland, Jurassic Park, or Madame Tussauds (the last of which is really gonna chafe).

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

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

Yesterday evening, a bomb scare in Dogtown was thankfully just a false alarm. The usually peaceful streets that run along the boardwalk and are sprinkled with skaters, surfer dudes and beach bums were shut down around Market Street over a suspicious package. The LAPD locked down the surrounding area and had a robot transport the suspect package down to Ocean Front Walk where it then blew it to smithereens.

Based on the debris from the small explosion, it appears the contents of the package were skateboard parts.

Hopefully the cops got out of there in time before a riotous group of enraged, half-baked skaters found out the hold up for happy hour and sweet potato fries at Nikki's wasn't even for a real bomb. And that it resulted in the destruction of some sweet skate decks.

[photos via]

Article courtesy of Los Angeles | Guest of a Guest – Los Angeles People, Places, Parties & Nightlife

Credit Suisse Boosts CEO’s Pay (WSJ)
19.2 million Swiss francs ($17.9 million) in cash and stock for Brady Dougan.

SEC Probes Hedge Fund Bets (WSJ)
Appaloosa Management has been scrutinized by the Securities and Exchange Commission over trades it made around the time Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to acquire Wachovia Corp. in 2008, according to people familiar with the matter. Regulators also have questioned trades by Carlson Capital, in connection with four secondary stock offerings between late 2007 and mid-2009, according to a person familiar with the matter.

FSA Swoop Hauled In Government Adviser (FT)
The Deutsche Bank executive arrested on Tuesday in connection with an insider dealing investigation was one of a team of bankers advising the government on managing its stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. The Deutsche unit, which is being led by Anshu Jain, co-head of the German bank’s investment banking operations, comprises more than a dozen bankers looking at strategic options for the part-nationalised lenders, according to people familiar with the set-up. The executive, Martyn Dodgson, who was recently promoted to be a managing director at Deutsche, was part of the government advisory team.

Jon Corzine’s New Package (Footnoted)
Just for signing on with MF Global, Corzine’s getting not only a $1.5 million signing bonus within the next month, but also an option for 2.5 million shares that vests if he makes it through March 31 next year. The option’s strike price will be set April 7, but at Tuesday’s close it would have been worth $18.3 million. His base salary can’t fall below the initial $1.5 million, but it can be increased — and once it is, it can’t fall again.

CEOS Defy Obama With More Cash Instead of Pay-for-Performance (Bloomberg)
“To the extent there is more emphasis on cash than stock, that’s unfortunate,” said Kenneth Feinberg, the U.S. special master on executive compensation, who was appointed by Obama in June 2009. “We’re pushing the other way.”

Behind Consumer Agency Idea, A Fiery Advocate (NYT)
“Dang gummit, somebody has got to stand up on behalf of middle-class families!” Elizabeth Warren exclaimed in a recent interview in her office here.

Shades of ‘Wall Street’ in Insider Trading Arrests (DealBook)
Discussions between Mr. Poteroba and Mr. Koval about other companies included the following correspondence: “Let me know if you’ve started your wedding registry at Macy’s,” and “Happy to talk about sales items and etc … sale ends soon … so hurry up.”

Blankfein Foundation Pumps $11 Million Into Charity (Bloomberg)
Lloyd and the wife Laura have donated that much (from 2000-2009) to Harvard University, the Robin Hood Foundation, the UJA-Federation of New York, among others.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker