Investors have been leaving Galleon Group in droves since Rajaratnam's arrest last week on charges that he used a network of informants to acquire inside information that netted him $20 million in profits. Galleon Group's trading partners have filed redemption requests to withdraw $1.3 billion of the $3.7 billion managed by the company. Clients are concerned that Galleon Group's assets could be frozen in the coming investigation. The investor exodus has forced Galleon Group to sell tech stocks and other assets to raise cash.

Rajaratnam visited the Galleon Group's Madison Avenue headquarters on Monday for a rousing ten-minute speech. Some of the employees in attendance for Rajaratnam's visit were crying as he told them "I'm counting on you to take care of our investors" and vowed to fight the charges being made against him by federal prosecutors. Rajaratnam also sent out a letter to Galleon Group employees and investors in which he proclaimed his innocence and promised that he'd "continue to be here working for Galleon" and that "the firm will continue to serve its clients with effectiveness and integrity."

There is one bright spot for employees who don't share Rajaratnam's rosy outlook for the Galleon Group. Executive recruiters have alreay been approaching staffers at the dying hedge fund about jumping ship. Raj Rajaratnam may think his company still has some life left in it, but the vultures have definitely started circling overhead.

Raj Rajaratnam is the co-founder of the hedge fund Galleon Group. Last Friday, he was arrested and charged with the biggest insider trading scheme that Wall Street has seen in recent history. Let's briefly recap this spectacular criminal web!

• The SEC says that Rajaratnam used a vast web of inside informants at various companies to trade on them illegally using inside information. He and five others have been charged in this case, including two from another hedge fund and one IBM executive. Rajaratnam allegedly paid cash and favors to insiders in return for information, and made more than $20 million in profit on the ensuing trades.
• Rajaratnam himself (who claims he's innocent) is a Sri Lankan native who's been a fundraiser for causes there (including, allegedly, the Tamil Tigers, who are designated as terrorists by the US government). He's also the largest individual investor in Sri Lanka, and stocks there fell on the news of the charges.
• This is the largest insider trading case ever connected to a hedge fund. That makes the publicity-and-regulation-averse hedge fund world nervous. However, at least three former Rajaratnam colleagues are helping the government build its case against him.
• Incriminating telephone transcripts? This case has 'em! The best are tapes of Danielle Chiesi of New Castle Funds (pictured), also charged with insider trading in the case. She sounded less than innocent:
  
  
  
  
• Robert Moffat, a top IBM exec, was also arrested in the case, for leaking inside info. His arrest reportedly caused "cheering in the halls" by unionized workers.
• Anyhow, Rajaratnam's out on $100 million bail and he's supposed to be addressing Galleon employees in the office today, so be sure to email us and let us know what he says!

Russell Abrams runs Titan Capital, a $200 million hedge fund (though it was $375 million two years ago, natch). Two of his employees—Danielle Pecile (pic below via her now-deleted Facebook account), 26, and Cristina Culicea (pic below via her Facebook), 27, have filed a sexual harassment suit against Abrams and his brother Marc, a Titan VP.

But not just your run-of-the-mill harassment! One of their complaints is that Russell Abrams gave Pecile a CD of photos of him and his wife on their honeymoon, and had her drop it off to get developed, and pick it up. Many of the photos of the wife showed her topless or even nude! Not what you would particularly like to do for your boss, in most cases. Pecile says Abrams smirked and said "You liked them, didn't you?" Now he wishes he had not done so:

[The women's lawyer] told Russell Abrams that one of the ways Pecile was harassed was in having to see the topless pictures, and that they had copies of them.

He said they would be returned if the entire case were settled, and that it would take $2.5 million to do so, the Abrams said. The photos were subsequently included as evidence in the EEOC complaint, the suit says.

Haha. You want to make me take your creepy ass nekkid photos to the developer? I will keep copies, then! And demand $2.5 million to give them back to you! Take note—you may be able to use this tactic in your own workplace, should the opportunity arise.

Now Russell Abrams' wife Sandra, who is pregnant, has filed a $1 million countersuit against the women so it's all very messy, but the lesson is, develop nude photos yourself.

[NYDN, NYP]

Summers is Obama's chief economic advisor, a position that, conveniently, doesn't require Senate confirmation. If it had required Senate confirmation, Summers probably woulda been Daschle'd. Not necessarily because he doesn't pay his taxes (though he probably doesn't, who knows) but because he is totally beholden to everyone in finance.

So. Summers earned $5.2 million for a part-time gig at the hedge fund D. E. Shaw.

And hey, what a shock this is to learn:

At Harvard and at Shaw, Mr. Summers cultivated a small circle of financial professionals - particularly hedge fund managers - to serve as an informal brain trust. He consults with them on policy matters from his perch in the White House.

And suddenly the Geithner plan makes a little more sense! Well, except that they still can't convince the HEDGE FUNDS THAT WILL SAVE THE ECONOMY to sign on, even when the government is basically promising to insulate them from risk.

More fun facts about Larry: after he stepped down as President of Harvard because he said gurls are stoopid, he still made $528,996 as "Charles W. Eliot University professor" this last year, making him Harvard's highest-paid professor! This while he was working at the hedge fund and all the other shit he gets paid millions to make appearances at.

Naturally Harvard forbids devoting more than "20 per cent of one's total professional effort" to "outside work," which it could be argued that Mr. Summers has been doing since he stepped down as President to remain a highly paid pretend professor back in '06.

Anyway. Larry Summers. We keep hearing about how he is THE MOST BRILLIANT ECONOMIST OF HIS GENERATION but maybe that only applies if his economic theories made you rich in the 90s and are keeping you rich now.

A vicious critic of management. Loeb, 47, whose Third Point fund runs $2.6 billion in assets, is "Wall Street's poison pen," as Cityfile puts it. When he invests in companies, he attaches letters to regulatory filings in which he excoriates management, a habit which got him written up in the New Yorker. A job applicant got into a >heated email exchange with him. Some of Loeb's disses:

It is time for you to step down from your role as CEO and director so that you can do what you do best: retreat to your waterfront mansion in the Hamptons where you can play tennis and hobnob with your fellow socialites

We will work assiduously… to ensure that you will have ample time to pursue your golf games and to enjoy the Florida sun thereafter

Well, you will have plenty of time to discuss your "place in society" with the other fellows at the club. I love the idea of a French/English unemployed guy, whose fund just blew up, telling me that I am going to fail.

At Third Point, like the financial markets in general, "one's place in society" does not matter at all. We are a bunch of scrappy guys from diverse backgrounds (Jewish, Muslim, Hindu etc.) who enjoy outwitting pompous asses, like yourself, in financial markets globally.

Your "inexplicable insouciance" and disrespect is fascinating; it must be a French/English aristocratic thing. I will be following your "career" with great interest.

I have copied Patrick so that he can introduce you to people who might be a better fit. There must be an insurance company or mutual fund out there for you. Dan Loeb.

This kind of thing means that Loeb has left a trail of people who will no doubt be cheered to read that his fund dropped 32 percent in 2008.

Nevertheless, still really, really wealthy. Exactly how wealthy? His net worth hasn't been reported, but he made between $200 million and $250 million in 2007. He bought the most expensive apartment in New York, a $45 million penthouse overlooking Central Park with an absurdly overscale terrace. He also has a condo in Miami beach and a home in East Hampton designed by Rafael Viñoly.

Rents out his jet. What's the difference between Warren Buffett and Dan Loeb? Buffett pays by the hour for his private-jet rides. Other people pay Loeb to ride in his Gulfstream IV — $5,800 per hour. (Unless, that is, they happen to be moderately pretty, self-obsessed bloggers, in which case they ride free.)

Well-traveled. Loeb spent a month in Mysore, India, studying under a guru to perfect his understanding of Ashtangic yoga. In 2006, he took a professional surfer named "Wingnut" and a camera crew with him to Costa Rica, where he documented himself catching waves. He shows the film to friends, according to Hamptons Style.

Opinionated. He is as apt to diss another school of yogic practice as he is a rival hedge-fund manager. A 2001 New York feature on yogahttp://nymag.com/nymetro/health/fitness/features/5394/, in which Loeb appeared pseudonymously as "Mr. Hedge Fund," quoted him:

"Jivamukti is all BS," he said. "Non-attachment is something that some 25-year-old girl made up, some girl who spends half her day thinking, Oh, should I take class with Ginger or Shakti today? Ginger's teaching at three, but I love Shakti. Oh, what am I going to do?" said Mr. Hedge Fund, adopting a tinny female voice. "None of that comes into play in Ashtanga. It is not about preaching: It is a daily practice, and if you do the practice, all will come."

(And yet he tolerates the presence of Allison and Asha. Curious!) Loeb reportedly turned on an ex-girlfriend, Kelly, to yoga:

It turned out, in fact, that she had been introduced to yoga by Mr. Hedge Fund, whom she met on a blind date back when he was a nearly bankrupt junk-bond trader.

"I used to call him Yoga Faggot to all my friends," admits Kelly. "Yoga Faggot! Can you believe it? What a bitch."

He kept pressuring her to try yoga, and eventually she gave in. "There were only so many times you can say no to someone you're in love with," she says. Then she deadpans: "I mean, eventually, I slept with him, too."

Doesn't know when to shut up. For a while, he posted on finance message boards, a habit which got him sued, according to a profile in Men's Vogue:

In 1999, he was sued for libel by public relations executive John Liviakis for allegedly “repeatedly and maliciously publish[ing]” anonymous posting on Yahoo! Finance under the pseudonyms “John_Crimiakis_StockSwindler” and “Mr. Pink” (after a character in Reservoir Dogs). Liviakis’s complaint quoted one posting: “I have registered 1.7 million shares to sell and these will soon flood the market. Hopefully I will sell these before the company loses its Nasdaq listing…Then I will laugh at you fools for buying my shares and I will celebrate with a bottle of grappa, some fresh feta, and a nice young boy—just like in the old country.

Refused by Matthew Barney's art dealer. Loeb has a large art collection, but it does not include a particular photograph from Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle. Barney's dealer, Barbara Gladstone, refused to sell it to him. Loeb's reported sin: not being sufficiently "well-mannered."

Married. In 2004, to the former Margaret Munzer, a yoga teacher.

Update: Curious: Allison has removed photos of the plane's interior from her NonSociety egoblog.

These should be heady times for Thiel, whose Clarium hedge fund sparked glowing press coverage (and more than a little envy). His strategy was different from most of the private pools of cash run out of places like Greenwich: Using relatively little debt, he sought to profit in times when governments meddle with markets. That should be now, right? Instead, he has been as hard hit by the credit crisis as most other hedge funds. He is down a mere 4.5 percent for the year — but that includes his phenomenal 58 percent rise from $4 billion in January 2008 to $7 billion six months later.

From July to December, Clarium's assets cratered. According to performance data obtained by Valleywag, Clarium's main fund returned negative 39 percent. Put simply, an investor who put in the fund's minimum of $1 million would have ended six months later with $600,00.

By the numbers, most did not wait around that long. Thiel's fund ended the year with only $2 billion under management, which suggests that investors took out another $2 billion, in addition to Clarium's $3 billion in investment losses. (Click to see the full document.)

No surprise there: Risk-averse investors have been pulling out of hedge funds everywhere. Thiel was right about the mortgage bubble, and right about the rising role of governments in markets. But was he right about how to make money off these developments? So far, the answer's no. And to investors, that's the only kind of vision that matters.

The Madoff parallels are many. Nadel marketed his funds to the Jewish community of Sarasota, Fla., just as Madoff preyed on synagogue-goers from Manhattan's Upper East Side to Palm Beach. Like Madoff's firm, Nadel's Scoop Management handled funds for charities; the YMCA Foundation of Sarasota had $1.1 million entrusted to Nadel. Like Madoff, Nadel worked through layers of corporations and funds. Valhalla Management, a money management firm, subcontracted all of its money management to Nadel's Scoop Management. And like Madoff, Nadel claimed to have a computerized trading strategy that produced consistently superior returns.

It's not clear where Nadel is. His car was found parked at Sarasota's airport; he reportedly left a suicide note at his home on Thursday, but later called his wife from New Orleans. Valhalla officials, who are cooperating with FBI and SEC investigators, believe he is at large.

The fraud Nadel has been accused of is orders of magnitude smaller than Madoff's; in turning himself into his sons, Madoff claimed he'd lost $50 billion in a Ponzi scheme. And the revelation of Madoff's scheme may have proved to be Nadel's undoing, as it sent a wave of panic through hedge-fund investors.

But what the Nadel case really suggests is that there will be no end of Madoffs to discover. As Warren Buffett once put it in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, "You only find out who's swimming naked when the tide goes out." How many small schemes were hidden by the mortgage boom? And how many greedy yet gullible investors chose not to ask questions, as long as their balances kept going up? And how different are these hedge-fund scammers from the Wall Street peddlers who hawked worthless bonds? We may yet find Nadel. But finding answers to these questions will prove much harder.

John Paulson
A hedge-fund manager who made $3.7 billion — yes, with a b — in 2008 by betting against the subprime mortgage market and the investment banks, like Lehman Brothers, that had profited from it. No relation to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. (PIty. Wouldn't it be juicy if he were?)

Peter Kraus
An investment banker who worked only a few days at Merrill Lynch before Bank of America bought the troubled brokerage house, but walked away with a $25 million bonus — at a time when the government was propping up Merrill and Bank of America with a taxpayer-funded bailout. He then bought a $37 million Park Avenue apartment we dubbed "the People's Palace." At his new job as CEO of AllianceBernstein, he's due for a $6 million bonus this year and $50 million in stock over five years.

Hugh "Skip" McGee III
McGee, the head of U.S. banking for Lehman, helped negotiate the sale in bankruptcy of Lehman's U.S. operations to Barclay's the British bank. In the process, he argued the place would fall apart without him, and scored a two-year, $50 million contract, even as Lehman laid off thousands. “I’m feeling nauseous right now even thinking about McGee’s deal," one fomer Lehman banker told the Daily Beast. Update: Peter Truell, Barclays' director of corporate communication, called to say the Beast's figure was "categorically false," but wouldn't tell me what McGee's actual compensation was. Could be higher, could be lower! Anyone care to fill us in?

Nauseous, or envious? These three are clearly brilliant bankers. Anyone who could make so much money in a dissolving marketplace probably deserves outsized pay. Which is why it's so funny to see Wall Street pinstripes complaining about their success. Their only sin: reserving their skills for their own pocketbooks.

• His ignoble end: opening the door "in his upper East Side apartment in pale blue bathrobe and slippers, facing two FBI agents."
• Madoff had a super-select client list, including the co-owners of the New York Mets. A spokesman says this won't effect the team at all. Focus, Reyes.
• One competitor investigated Madoff's firm and wrote a letter in 1999 (!) to the SEC saying, "Madoff Securities is the world's largest Ponzi scheme." That dude should start his own hedge fund, tomorrow.
• Who did Madoff's scam really hurt? The rich! And the Jews! And above all, the rich Jews! He may have totally broken most of the Jewish members of the Palm Beach Country Club:
  

  He was a brilliantly successful money manager who may well have handled the assets of a majority of the 300 members, as well as that of those of a largely Jewish clientele across the eastern United States and a number of wealthy WASPs.

  Lots of Palm Beach millionaires are wiped out! And their charity money!

  There was one largely Jewish charity event last evening.
  "It was like the Titanic," one attendee said. "The ship was sinking, and people were crying, 'I lost this and that.' And everybody was drunk. The Titanic was going down, and we might as well carry on."

  College funds! Pensions! Everything! Up and down the east coast!

  “There are people who were very, very well off a few days ago who are now virtually destitute,” said Brad Friedman, a lawyer with the Milberg firm in Manhattan. “They have nothing left but their apartments or homes — which they are going to have to sell to get money to live on.”

  At least it's gone to a better place:

  And one hedge-fund manager, Douglas Kass, estimates that "at least $15 billion of wealth, much of which was concentrated in southern Florida and New York City, has gone to 'money heaven.' "

[Pic via]

Okay, so, today's Times byline orgy re-enactment of that coupla days a coupla weeks ago where suddenly every banker was like "OHSHTWRSCRWD" achieved two important things:

1. Reminded "Main Street" (Aside: irk you as much as it does yours true that the pols keep calling it "Main Street" when the whole reason this started is because there's NO SUCH THING anymore in this country?? Because everyone had to have his own house, recall?? Anyhoo) that, you know, every business in this freakin country operates on debt, not because they're spoiled delusional children like every last CEO on the Street except John Thain (which reminds me, Johnny Boy is staying on with the new Bank of AMerillca! See, you KNEW he wasn't in it for the nine figure pay package, aw…) but because DUH, because that's like the basis of all civilization or something!! And

2. Reminded Wall Street Just How Crazy it is with a creepy/inspiring (which? both?) anecdote about Black Thursday over at Goldisachs. Lloyd was freaking out, Goldman stock in freefall, etc. etc.…and then one o'clock rolls around and someone they identify as a "prankster" starts playing the "Star-Spangled Banner" over the loudspeaker. All the bankers are like, what?! Some even put their hands over their hearts. And at THAT VERY MOMENT, the stock stopped falling. Turned up a little even! Guess what had happened? That's right, a short-selling ban had just been announced!! Capitalism itself had been suspended! Think that means there's something Goldman guys find inspiring about this country… other than its free market?? Yeah probably not, but I thought about shedding a tear!

Okay so moving on, the big story is…well shucks, got a few hours? No of course not! We're all about to hit me baby one more time with another public appearance by everyone's fave fakenbaked ratings black gold governess!!! (Broad is like Merrill with the CDOs after even AIG stopped insuring them, we know she's bad for us, but we just can't stop.) So I'll make it quick: everyone, except maybe Buffett and John not to be confused with Hank Paulson, is screwed: every other hedge fund is screwed, Veronica Peterson of Columbia, Maryland, who is trying to pay a $4,450-a-month mortgage on fifty grand a year — hey, why not have a go at that, quant jocks? — is screweder, the market that is being artificially propped up by the continued short sale ban managed to fall 350 points today anyway, not that anyone is paying attention to the market because the entire private sector is too busy wondering where the heck they're supposed to find a line of credit when the entire financial system won't trust anyone but the guv-mint with its money anymore. Yikes! Oh, though if Veronica Peterson's story shook your faith in private enterprise, here's a doozy from the public sector: there's a special provision in the new bailout bill offering (SORELY-needed) tax relief to the makers of wooden arrows used in bow-n-arrow sets for children. Think you could poke someone's life out with one of them things?

Anyway, if I were really Serwer this is where I would actually round up a few MORE asides and tangents here and call them "Loose Change," but in the Web 2.0 era that gets to be your job! Although if Dismal Science wants offer himself for the position of Serwer's old standby source "Deep Blue" (sug. nickname change: "Deep Shit") he knows who to G-chat!

This really weird ad decrying "The New Communism" ran on A17 of the Times today. It was paid for by some plutocrat in Houston named Bill Perkins who supports Obama. I think it advances my general contention that some of the fiercest critics of the Washington-Wall Street complex are actually beneficiaries of that whole scam, because Perkins's firm Crystal Energy LLC would appear to be precisely the sort of outfit to which God instructed Sarah Palin to fast-track lucrative contracts decimating the environment in pursuit of cheap energy.

But I don't actually know because today's Senate hearing cut his CNBC interview down to about one and a half seconds. In any case, I hope the Times still has a Houston rep who can take this guy out to dinner. Who knows, maybe he can rustle up some other likeminded rich guys with money they'd be wiling to give newspapers now that capitalism as we know it has been suspended.

There's another vivid memory I have of Hunt. It was maybe two years later. In the middle of one of our hang-around days, I put the question to him: "So, Hunter, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I want to be important." I knew what he meant.

That's a selection from Promises to Keep, Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden's 2007 quickie "I'm running for president" memoir. Hunt, in the quote, is Hunter Biden (above, left, with brother Beau), Joe's younger son. Hunt did grow up to be important. He's a lobbyist who's now being sued for defrauding investors!

>Hunter, 38, supposedly got a job as president of a hedge fund group, because his dad didn't want him to be a Washington lobbyist anymore. Hunter did not have any experience with hedge funds. Here are some of the confusing details:

In the hedge fund business deal, Lotito and the Bidens created a company called LLB Holdings USA and together agreed to pay $21.3 million for 54 percent interest in Paradigm.

In the lawsuit, Lotito said that soon after creating LLB, the Bidens crafted a "secret deal" to create their own company that was designed to buy out his shares in Paradigm for a low rate, to which he agreed. He said he knew nothing of the secret deal until later and now believes he was defrauded out of millions of dollars and his share in the company.

In the second lawsuit against the Bidens, which was filed in June, Lotito is also named as a defendant. Stephane Farouze, now an executive with Deutsche Bank, seeks $10 million, saying the Bidens and Lotito promised to buy his shares in the hedge fund company but reneged.

But the more important bit is that supposedly Joe Biden's brother James called up Lotito back in 2006 and said the Joe Biden campaign needed to find Hunter a non-lobbying job ASAP. Hunter returned to lobbying a couple months later, and now he will lose Obama the presidency because America sure does care about this shit.

Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 09:55:13 -0700
From: sanjay9000
Subject: [2000] E! True Wall Street/Hollywood Story?

Dear (redacted),

My name is Sanjay Sanghoee and I am co-chair of the media committee for Columbia Business School's Alumni Club of New York. I am Class of 2000.

I am working on a high-profile movie project on a Wall Street theme that I thought might be of interest to some of you and could be lucrative as well. Please see the attached article from Crain's New York Business on this project.

I started my professional career as an investment banker and currently work with a hedge fund. As day turns into night however, I work on my true passion: Writing. I wrote a novel titled 'Merger,' a corporate thriller, that was published by a division of St. Martin's Press in 2006.

The novel received praise from Chicago Tribune and BARRON's and the Foreword for the paperback was written by Harvey Pitt, the former chairman of the SEC. Shortly about release, a major production company in Hollywood (Brillstein Grey Entertainment) decided to develop the book, which is a mix between 'Wall Street' and 'The Firm', into a $15 million motion picture. I was thrilled since I felt this story really needs to be told to a wide audience, especially after the corporate scandals we have seen over the past decade.

I wrote the script, created a business plan and started fundraising for the movie, with technical guidance from Harvey Pitt and Bethany McLean, the Fortune magazine reporter who broke the Enron story and co-writer of 'The Smartest Guys in the Room'. In addition to my producing duties, Brillstein also felt that I was the ideal candidate to creatively bring Merger to the big screen and attached me as the director. On a more detailed note, I directed a short film last year which was well received by Brillstein and convinced them that I had the ability to do this.

We have a topnotch team assembled for the movie, including a Casting Director who has worked on movies liked 'United 93', 'Black Hawk Down' and 'The Good Shepherd' and the Director of Photography from 'The Guardian' (Kevin Costner) and 'Mission: Impossible 3' (Tom Cruise). Also, we plan to cast two supporting roles from Bollywood (even though Merger is a mainstream Hollywood film with American lead roles), thereby greatly expanding the international potential of this film.

So cutting to the chase, we have 50% of the financing available to us through soft monies and debt financing. We also have strong interest from a wealthy investor to provide 20% of the budget in equity, and are looking to line up the remaining 30% in equity that will enable us to put the various pieces together. The 30% translates to roughly $4.5 million dollars.

Please note I am offering a generous finder's fee to any alum(s) who can help us line up investors in an expedited fashion.

At this time I would like to present a synopsis of the project: Merger is a fast-paced story of an Indian media baron (Vikram Suri) who uses a hostile takeover of an American company to further his ambitions, and in the process jeopardizes U.S. national security. He is brought down by a tough-nosed New York Times reporter (Amanda Fleming), a savvy investment banker (Tom Carter), and a rogue CIA Agent (Jack Ward).

The Hollywood stars we are targeting include Josh Hartnett, Edward Burns, Ryan Phillippe, Diane Kruger, Kate Beckinsale and Julia Stiles. On the Bollywood side, our top choices include Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bachchan and Hritik Roshan. As many of you know, Bollywood cinema has a tremendous following in places like Western Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. This opens up a treasure trove of marketing possibilities for both the film and the novel, which can be cross sold.

I am keen on directing this project since I know the world in which this film is set and am very passionate about the story. With your help, I can bring this project to fruition. My good friend Som Chivukula, who is an Associate Producer on the project, is helping me in this endeavor as well.

We look forward to hearing any ideas you may have and of course making this worth your while financially. Please contact (redacted) for more information and check out our website at www.relentlesspics.com

Best wishes,

Sanjay Sanghoee
Producer
Relentless Pictures Inc.

www.relentlesspics.com
www.merger-novel.com

See, we thought Sanjay was advised to stop mentioning Josh Hartnett, Edward Burns, Ryan Phillippe, Diane Kruger, Kate Beckinsale and Julia Stiles when the only real star he could get a tentative yes from was the lovely Lara Flynn Boyle. Still, we admire his entrepreneurial spirit. It reminds us of nothing so much as those Nigerian gentlemen who keep emailing us about inheritances and so forth.

One of the problems is that Mr. Sanghoee wants to direct it himself. Also, it's a movie about Wall Street coming out during a recession. Also, it's a self-funded vanity project that will end in tears and massive debt. And films financed in this briefly fashionable style have all tended to do poorly. (Remember The Kingdom?)

A fund in Atlanta weighing a $7.5 million investment has cut back by $3 million. A $5 billion hedge fund group that was supposed to handle debt financing now has other priorities, namely liquidating 80 percent of its holdings.

Still, the world is full of suckers with money, and they're often willing to give it to fellow suckers with money. So this film will probably get made, in some fashion. And we'll all get to experience that increasingly common joy of watching bad things happen to bankers when it tanks. If we even notice it come out.

1. Rachel and I talked / emailed last week about me coming and she was fine with it, so I made plans to meet up with nearly a dozen friends. Some of these people I haven't seen in a very long time and we've been talking all weekend about what we'll do after the party.For me to bail on them at the last second would be extremely rude.

2. I will have no cameras and will not be covering the party for my new jobs as reporter for TheStreet.com (I'll be starting as a writer in a few weeks) and MSN Money (I am their goto video guy). I'll be low-key, really.

3. I invited 2 female friends who went out and bought new dresses for this event. I don't know how to explain it to them that I can't attend with them.

4. While you guys seem to think 'I've made a mockery of the list' with my eccentric behavior, other media outlets now recognize me as a finance expert / personality. Sure I have an ego, but my position is backed by CNBC (7 appearances since the beginning of the year), CNN (I debated greed with the most powerful religious leaders last month), FOX (I was on Cavuto on July 4th), Oprah and Friends Radio (they loved my book and are having me on in a few weeks), Young Money (I will be their cover story for their October issue, Penthouse (I will have a feature story in their Christmas issue), and Wiley (they offered me a $35k advance for my book).

5. You guys are took a pretty good shot at me in this latest issue so even if you really believe I somehow embarrassed you last year, I consider us even.

TRADING'S BUFFOON - THE TIM SYKES EMAILS [Trader Daily]

Moskowitz, for one, is kind of shocked-awed by her customers:

"It's consumption, consumption, consumption," she said. "[Customers] don't need an occasion in order to buy something. The only difference is that in Beverly Hills, married women are free to spend unlimited amounts of money. Sometimes in Greenwich the women go through this sort of protocol where they have to get permission from their husbands. It's a quasi-Texas attitude. They have the role of homemaker with a lot of money."

Salon owner Warren-Tricomi's Greenwich outpost stays open seven days a week to keep up with the demand for "done" hair. "We have clients who come in daily," said Joel Warren, a partner in the salon. "It sounds a little opulent and over-the-top, but people work hard and make a lot of money and deserve to be taken care of. People like to feel finished. That carefree feeling doesn't exist [in Greenwich]. Carefree hair doesn't go with the lifestyle."

"Our average price point is $1,200," she said, adding that there's been no price resistance and expansion may be in the offing.