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Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds

Location: Blogs Bob O'Brien's Sanity Check Blog    
Posted by:   bobo 12/6/2006 10:53 AM

 -----------------

Sign the Market Reform Petition Now!: View it here.

To view the SIA NYSE member firm spreadsheet showing $63 billion in delivery and receipt failures as of Q2, 2006, click here.

------------------

Here is the entire Judiciary hearing from yesterday - on video. Check out the comments section of this blog for specific points of interest. You can also hear the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing here. The first 15 minutes or so are as dull as trying to get through the first 100 pages of a 'lilGW tome, however it starts heating up around 20 minutes into it, once Blumenthal and Ron Tenpas are done, although Blumenthal does have some fun observations about hedge funds and their lack of regulation.

For a blow by blow discussion, see yesterday's blog and commentary.

Once Aguirre starts talking, the bombs go off, as the SEC tries to paint him as a nut, while his colleague comes to the table and corroborates his take on the case and subsequent events. My favorites involve when Hanson, Aguirre's then supervisor, gets caught flatfooted when Specter inquires about an email where Hanson refers to Mack as "another bad man." Hanson just can't recall why he said that. Also fun is where Stachnick refuses to answer Specters questions, doing the regulatory equivalent of taking the Fifth. Give it a listen - it is one of the most remarkable hearings I've ever witnessed.

-------------------

'lilGW has apparently been trying to hide the evidence of his writing his own reviews for his books on Amazon. Antisocialmedia has a great bit tracking the sudden mysterious disappearance of his most ardent reviewers from the Amazon pages, as well as another oopsy daisy wherein one of the reviewer's home pages is titled "Gary Weiss."

Draw your own conclusion, but the notion that this clod has a column now with Forbes is insulting. What precisely do you have to do to be a pariah in that business, if lying, using sock puppets, deceiving at every turn, etc. is apparently acceptable?
Copyright ©2006 Bob O'Brien
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Comments (44)
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By edwardb_3 on 12/6/2006 12:08 PM
I assume you copied Liz on this.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By bobo on 12/6/2006 12:21 PM
I'm quite sure that more than liz in the journalist community read this blog. Call it a hunch.

BTW, saw the complaint in the Milberg suit against the prime brokers. Reads like one of my blogs.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By gregcable2002 on 12/7/2006 6:41 AM
The management in the sec are there for a paycheck and thats all,living off the taxpayers money and special interest favors.It's time for the taxpayer to take a stand against these gravytrain leaches.I'm not including all government employees just those who have their hands STUCK in the cookie jar.That cookie jar is turning into a big rat trap.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By rtway1 on 12/7/2006 6:54 AM
The most obvious part of watching this tape is that you can not sit on the center of the fence and not take a side on this issue. Both parties have been forced to do what we have been waiting for. Yhave to either beleive Mr. Acguire and his cohorts who have nothing to gain by there actions and everything to loose, or you can take the sides of the SEC officials who have everything to gain if this goes away or is forgotten. It is patently obvious that the smoking gun is in the hands of the SEC and all of their cronies. If this just goes away so will our hopes of a free and honest democracy.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By bbhindyou on 12/7/2006 7:08 AM
Who's throwing tantrums?
I don't think it's Aguirre.
He's throwing facts.
Who's throwing tantrums?
I think it's the sec and any publication bought and paid for by the big money interests that want us all to ignore the man behind the curtian that Aguirre is pulling open.
Who do you trust?
The sec?
Marketwatch?
Have faith and don't question authority and all will be well.
Does that work for you?
It just makes me want to sneer.
Good thing I don't have a dog.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By clearthinker on 12/7/2006 7:53 AM
Of course, can anyone blame Aguirre for being upset by the stonewalling that his invesitgation apparently received. Another way of looking at it was that the SEC took a tenacious, intense prosecutor, and pushed hi over the edge by blocking his every attempt at discovering the truth. How many of us would become "irritable" in those circumstances? Another person might have been able to keep his composure better than Mr. Aguirre, but it's hard to find fault with his response to being stonewalled by his peers, if that's what they were doing.

I don't think that Specter is buying the SEC's spin on Aguirrre's behavior, nor their sudden shift of opinion on the quality of his performance.

CT
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By anon on 12/7/2006 9:31 AM
I wish people would stop cutting and pasting long articles in here, it makes it hard to follow, it seems to be what causes notes added out of order, and the material is usually copywrited.

Just paste the headline, first paragraph, and a link for those that want to read the whole article. Thanks!
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By Hear LOUD footsteps on 12/7/2006 9:46 AM
FBI Focus Yields Spike in Corruption Cases


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/

2006/12/06/AR2006120601820.html?nav=rss_print/asection
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By they call me bond on 12/7/2006 9:48 AM
They "fail to deliver" bonds. Think about that!!!!

The first-ever antitrust probe of the municipal bond market is roiling an industry that states and cities depend on to finance everything from garbage trucks to schools.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the third-largest bank in the U.S., American International Group Inc., the world's largest insurance company, and Financial Security Assurance Holdings Ltd., a unit of Brussels-based financial services company Dexia SA, are among the companies that received subpoenas. JPMorgan declined to comment. AIG and Financial Security spokespeople said the companies are cooperating with the probe.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=awq77C8cUwZA&refer=us

It's criminal!!!
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By they call me bond on 12/7/2006 9:50 AM
``Any time the IRS is involved you worry about the integrity of the marketplace,'' Bond said. ``It sounds like they're finding something.''

Maybe our calls to the IRS will pay off. It isn't just investors that are getting ripped off. The tax man is getting ripped off, too.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By armed as they searched on 12/7/2006 10:43 AM
IBM's Moscow office raided


http://news.com.com/2061-10809_3-6141687.html?

part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By bobo on 12/7/2006 11:47 AM
Gary Aguirre's written testimony is now available, and it is a MUST READ. It is incomplete, however what is there is detailed, professionally presented, and as damaging for the SEC as anything I've ever seen.



http://judiciary.senate.gov/testimony.cfm?id=2437&wit_id=5485

One of my favorite quotes:

"If Justice at the SEC has lost her blindfold, the capital markets are in trouble. The SEC regulates the securities markets. Its success “is a bulwark against possible abuses and injustice which, if left unchecked, might jeopardize the strength of our economic institutions.” Few principles are more deeply engrained in Title 17 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which regulates the SEC’s operation, than the mandates obligating the SEC to handle all of its affairs, including the enforcement of the securities laws, with impartiality. No conduct would stray farther from those mandates than a double set of laws: one for the politically well connected and another for everyone else."
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By Jeremiah 9:24 on 12/7/2006 12:56 PM
Many of us suspect--including it seems also at least two US Senators-- that SEC decision makers can be "influenced" to kill an investigation into criminal activity by major Wall Street players. Assuming this is demonstrated, and the evidence is allowed to become public, will anyone ask the next obvious question? That is, if Wall Street powers can get the SEC to kill an investigation ... can Wall Street players get them to kill a company? That is, get em to, say begin a well timed inquiry into a short target?

Will anyone other than us "tin foil hat" folks ask that question? Which former SEC guy(s) went to work for Rocker & friends?
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By Jeremiah 9:24 on 12/7/2006 1:04 PM
Many of us suspect--including it seems also at least two US Senators-- that SEC decision makers can be "influenced" to kill an investigation into criminal activity by major Wall Street players. Assuming this is demonstrated, and the evidence is allowed to become public, will anyone ask the next obvious question? That is, if Wall Street powers can get the SEC to kill an investigation ... can Wall Street players get them to kill a company? That is, get em to, say begin a well timed inquiry into a short target?

Will anyone other than us "tin foil hat" folks ask that question? Which former SEC guy(s) went to work for Rocker & friends?
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By TIME for a SPECIAL PROSECUTER on 12/7/2006 1:48 PM
The two Senators have gone far enough. Bring on an independent investigator. Watching the SEC weasels at this hearing trying to cover up their crimes was beyond my wildest imagined fears.

Where was Chris Cox? Who ordered the cover-up? Mack has juice with the White House. Are they involved? Did they order the investigation of Mack by the SEC to stand down?

Painting Gary Aguirre as a raving uncontrollable lunatic has failed and failed badly. It has backfired on the weasels. No one with a brain who watches that hearing has any doubt as to who the guilty are( it ain't Gary Aguirre for those who did not watch the hearing).

"I can't recall" and "the DOJ advises me not to answer" just does not get it when spoken by government employees who are supposed to be protecting the public.

These jerks are part of the criminal structure that is stealing from us. I would like to see jail time for these complicit cowards.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By Paladin on 12/7/2006 1:56 PM
From the Investor Village NFI msg. board:


" From Terry Gilberg, the host of KFYI in Phoenix, came this e-mail:

<<< fyi....am planning on having patrick byrne on my show tonight 7-10 p.m. on kfyi. this during the 8:00 hour....note local phoenix time if you want to listen. terry >>>

Ms. Terry Gilberg
Talk Host, "The Terry Gilberg Show," Sunday Nights at 5 p.m.
NewsTalk 550--KFYI, Clear Channel Radio
4686 E. Van Buren, Suite 400 Phoenix, AZ 85005
(602) 374-6145 www.KFYI.com "
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By Freddo on 12/10/2006 7:30 PM
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20905424-643,00.html

(Thank you Hotlips)

Pretty good read everyone, fwiw......

FC,CF
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By bfranklin73 on 12/11/2006 6:36 PM
The Aguirre senate video is a MUST see. Set aside 2.5 hrs, grab some refreshments & enjoy the show. After hearing numerous and lengthy comments from the witmesses, it had me laughing so loud I had to contain myself. The SEC rep's looked like rats on a ship trying to jump out but were glued to their chairs. I have a new found respect for senator Spector and Grassley for grasping the simplicity and gravity of the situation. Bobo, thanks for the experience. RTB
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By bfranklin73 on 12/11/2006 6:38 PM
The Aguirre senate video is a MUST see. Set aside 2.5 hrs, grab some refreshments & enjoy the show. After hearing numerous and lengthy comments from the witmesses, it had me laughing so loud I had to contain myself. The SEC rep's looked like rats on a ship trying to jump out but were glued to their chairs. I have a new found respect for senator Spector and Grassley for grasping the simplicity and gravity of the situation. Bobo, thanks for the experience. RTB
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By bfranklin73 on 12/11/2006 6:57 PM
Mr Aguirre's senate video is a MUST see. Each participant was introduced after reciting their respective credentials. Valiant attempts were made by the SEC reps to defend their firing of Mr Aguirre and their handling of the case against Pequot, but they all fell short. Throughout the 2:30 hrs of questioning, the SEC reps looked like rats on a sinking ship but were chained to their chairs. I have a new found respect for Senator Spector and Grassley in recognizing the gravity of the situation. By the end of the session I was Laughing so hard I could hardly contain myself. Good one Bobo.....RTB
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By Sean on 12/6/2006 12:34 PM
Bob if any our our readers can upload yesterday's meeting onto "You Tube" I think this will go a long way to getting this corruption out to the masses that don't read. If anyone can help with this it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By Bobby on 12/6/2006 12:39 PM
If you go to youtube check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBTITHA8twI

http://www.bobbydarin.net/macklyrics.html
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By smuopr8r on 12/6/2006 2:24 PM
I thought Kreitman was the biggest weasle in the bunch. My favorite, after Specter has "invited" everyone to chime in with "Denials" because "there's plenty of denials being offered", Kreitman, in response to why they depositioned Mack 5 days after the statute of limitations had expired, tried to say there were other penalties that could be levied not affected by the statute of limitations...thanks for that tid-bit, pal...oh, yeah, and his lawyer buds on the other side of the fence really aren't next door neighbors...for Christ's sake, shut up while your behind!
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By Where's PETA When You Need Em on 12/6/2006 2:25 PM
I think I still have a screen capture of GW's little Sadistic Bunny profile pic.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By So what has Mack been up to? on 12/6/2006 2:41 PM

Morgan looks beyond hedge funds in buying spree
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By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch
Last Update: 4:24 PM ET Dec 6, 2006


NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Considering that Morgan Stanley has spent roughly $1 billion buying hedge-fund firms since late October, it's strange to hear Stuart Bohart say the investment bank isn't building a hedge-fund business.
But that's how Bohart, head of what Morgan Stanley (MS :
morgan stanley com new
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4:23pm 12/06/2006
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Sponsored by:
MS78.61, +0.63, +0.8% ) calls its "alternative investments" unit, explained the company's recent spending spree.
"We're not trying to build a hedge-fund business -- we're trying to build a modern investment-management firm," Bohart said during an interview at Morgan Stanley's offices in Midtown New York. "We want to be able to go to pension funds and put together a whole package of solutions while providing access to the best managers."
Bohart, 40, was tapped in May to help Morgan Stanley catch up with rival Goldman Sachs (GS :
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GS205.00, +3.39, +1.7% ) after the bank missed out on some of the recent boom in alternative investments -- a category that includes hedge funds, private equity, real estate and commodities.
With $6 billion in assets, Morgan Stanley ranked No. 27 in Alpha magazine's recent list of the largest fund-of-hedge-funds businesses. Goldman came in 12th, with more than $15 billion. Earlier this year, Alpha named Goldman the largest single-manager hedge-fund firm in the world. Morgan Stanley didn't appear in the top 10. See full story.
Bohart used to head Morgan Stanley's prime-brokerage business, which provides lending and other services to hedge-fund managers. That part of the bank's business has successfully tapped into hedge-fund growth and matched Goldman's offering in the area. The two firms now control a big chunk of the prime-brokerage market. See full story.
Deal making
Roughly six months after Bohart took on his new role, Morgan Stanley took the wraps off several deals.
The bank agreed to acquire the $5.5 billion multistrategy hedge-fund firm FrontPoint Partners in late October after having snapped up a stake in Avenue Capital, a New York-based firm with roughly $12 billion in assets, earlier that same week.
The bank also purchased a 19% stake in London-based Lansdowne Partners, an equity-focused hedge-fund business with more than $12 billion in assets, in early November.
And this Monday it agreed to buy Brookville Capital, a $221 million credit arbitrage fund. See full story.
Bohart said those investments aren't just about amassing lots of different hedge funds under one roof. Instead, Morgan Stanley plans to include the funds in a wide range of investments offered to pensions, endowments and other institutions looking for help meeting their future financial obligations.
Hedge funds are just one part of Morgan Stanley's plan for its investment-management business, which currently oversees almost $450 billion in assets.
After having been out of private equity for several years, Morgan Stanley plans to raise $7 billion to $8 billion in a buyout fund by next year. In September, the firm appointed Stephen Trevor and Alan Jones as co-heads of a new private-equity business within the investment-management division. Trevor was hired away from Goldman's buyout business.
'We're removing the handcuffs from our investment managers.'
— Stuart Bohart, Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley has been much more active in real estate, another "alternative" area. However, Bohart said he wants to build a real-estate fund of funds to complement the bank's direct real-estate-fund offerings and its real estate investment trust business.
Morgan Stanley already has a $6 billion fund-of-hedge-funds business and several billion dollars in single-manager hedge-fund assets. However, the recent acquisitions will help the bank beef up its offerings in this corner of the alternative-investment world, Bohart said.
"We're plugging holes and expanding our culture," he said, citing the company's investment in Avenue Capital as the best example.
Avenue, formed in 1995 by Marc Lasry and Sonia Gardner, specializes in distressed debt, an area in which Morgan Stanley Investment Management had "limited capabilities," Bohart noted.
The bank was also "light" on European alternative-investment products, so, according to Bohart, purchasing a stake in Lansdowne made sense.
'Removing handcuffs'
But what seems to excite Bohart as much as these acquisitions is the chance to change Morgan Stanley's traditional investment-management approach by introducing hedge-fund-like strategies across the division.
Managers who in the past might have been restricted to taking long positions are being encouraged to start hedge funds and use short selling to bet against securities, Bohart said.
Members of Morgan Stanley's fixed-income investment team started a hedge fund a couple of months ago, he noted.
The bank is also planning so-called 120/20 funds, which have piqued the interest of institutional investors, Bohart said. These would allow conventional equity managers to short stocks they don't like, up to 20% of their portfolio's value. To balance those positions out, managers then borrow money to increase their holdings of shares they favor, up to 120% of the portfolio's value.
New strategies like these help managers make better use of their research and perceptions of the market, Bohart said.
In the past, if equity-fund managers didn't like a stock, they would just reduce their holdings. But now they may be able to short it, while borrowing money to increase bets elsewhere and hedge their position, he said.
"We're removing the handcuffs from our investment managers," he said, "and helping them monetize the value of their research better." End of Story
Alistair Barr is a reporter for MarketWatch in San Francisco.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By Sledge on 12/6/2006 4:01 PM
The senate SEC video can be found here.

http://www.c-span.org/VideoArchives.asp?z1=&PopupMenu_Name=Congress&CatCodePairs=Issue,C;

Center, sixth link down as of today.

Senate Hearing on Insider Trading and Hedge Funds
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) chairs a Judiciary Cmte. hearing on "Examining Enforcement of Criminal Insider Trading and Hedge Fund Activity." Gary Aguirre, a former SEC investigator, claimed that he was fired in September 2005 after he attempted to investigate a possible case of a hedge fund profiting by trading on inside information.
12/5/2006: WASHINGTON, DC: 1 hr. 31 min.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By InTheKnow on 12/6/2006 4:29 PM
It is a sad, sad day that we see the watchdogs of our securites markets behave as would any common criminal called to testify in a government hearing.

We should be ashamed and repulsed by the testimony from the so called defenders of the individual investor. Shame on them and shame on us for ever defending this type of behavior and it is high time we thew these bums out on their asses.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By aldigit01 on 12/6/2006 4:30 PM
Just watching the stored video from the cspan site. Just got through the part where Hanson's e-mail calling Mack a "bad guy" came up. Interesting contradiction: previously when Hanson was giving testimony he said he didn't know much about Mack, but when Specter mentions the "bad guy" e-mail, he's knowledgeable enough to call him "Mack the Knife" for his habit of firing people...as maybe being the reason he said he was a "bad guy".
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By SpreadTheWord on 12/6/2006 5:52 PM
I couldn't find the video through the stated link becaused newer videos came up.
But with this link after searching it came up:

http://www.c-span.org/Search/advanced.asp?AdvancedQueryText=Senate+Hearing+on+Insider+Trading+and+Hedge+Funds&StartDateMonth=&StartDateYear=&EndDateMonth=&EndDateYear=&Series=&ProgramIssue=&QueryType=&QueryTextOptions=&ResultCount=10&SortBy=bestmatch
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By SpreadTheWord on 12/6/2006 5:59 PM
Aguirre starts around minute 47.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By SpreadTheWord on 12/6/2006 6:16 PM
Can't remember why I said "Bad man" around 1:17.
Very interesting
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By Sledge on 12/6/2006 6:19 PM
Take note of the last 30 seconds of the video where the camera is on the SEC IG. The guy looks all beside himself after Spector told him his investigation was unprofessional and this wasn't the end. At least now several people at the SEC know how it feels to innocent company insiders when the SEC starts investigations at the behest of hedge funds on companies like TASR and others. I can't wait till the next chapter.

Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By SpreadTheWord on 12/6/2006 6:21 PM
Ribelin testimony around 1:25.
Would be great if someone could save this video with WireTap or similar tools.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By SpreadTheWord on 12/6/2006 6:31 PM
Amazing video. Who can deny that the there is something terribly wrong with the SEC after seeing this?
Quite interesting to compare the talks by Hanson and Ribelin. Hanson was reading from well prepared notes and often looking to the right nervously. Ribelin would answer in his own words, looking straight at Specter and seemed much more credible.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By SpreadTheWord on 12/6/2006 6:47 PM
1:43 and on very interesting.
SEC Kreitman talks to Pequot lawyers who turn out to be former SEC attorneys and his close friends, one even a next door neighbor.
Then Mack gets into a Pequot deal that triples his $5m investment within a few months. No one else got into that deal. Normal procedure. Right.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By SpreadTheWord on 12/6/2006 6:49 PM
And:
Three contacts by Mack with CSFB. Very soon afterward Pequot
1. buys 15,000 shares
2. buys 450,000 shares
3. shorts the shares (i.e. closes its position).
Pure coincidence it seems. Right.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By hemingway811 on 12/6/2006 6:52 PM
Bobo,

Your link to the Judiciary Hearing is only audio. There is a video link at C-Span. I'm not sure how much longer it will be available.

I use Windows XP as I'm sure most do. I have not yet found a way to save the video to my hard drive so it is permanently available.

I have had PM message exchanges with several posters on the NFI IV board saying they have saved it to hard drive. They all use Mac.

I hope any of you who use Mac will post here to enable Bobo to permanently store the video.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By selene on 12/6/2006 7:02 PM
I'm going to wither away, but I want to make this very clear:

DO NOT TRUST MR. Blumenthal. Ask yourself what he is doing? He makes a very reasonable presentation, but make no mistake, his sole motivating purpose is to limit the hedge fund industry to its current royalty. Too many cooks in the kitchen is not a good thing for the powerful hedge funds he is realy representing. This guy not only looks like Elliot Shyster he is acting like him too.

Selene
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By selene on 12/6/2006 7:09 PM
spread the word

in your post, shorts the shares means shorts the shares of GE and not heller to close the position. they are playing merger arb and oh what a coincidence it all is...

Selene
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By SpreadTheWord on 12/6/2006 7:18 PM
Selene. alright. I see. Buy the acquired one, short the acquirer. Right?
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By GW's Wishlist on 12/6/2006 7:29 PM
Anyone else think lil GW's amazon wishlist as shown on the ASM link was um....revealing?.....talk about whacky
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By aldigit01 on 12/6/2006 7:31 PM
Selene is correct. Short applies to GE. Pequot hit both sides of the m&a activity at exactly the right time. What're the odds. (Pretty good when you get the info from the investment bankers.)

Hanson is between a rock and a hard place. He knows he became complicit when he didn't back Aguirre. He's also the obvious fall guy and doesn't have the golden parachutes the exec types have waiting for them.

Option 1: try to weather the storm and hope it blows over. That seems to be what he's doing now.

Option 2: if it heats up and they're coming for your head, time to roll over on your bosses and make a deal.

They're coming for you. Time for option #2. Better a dead end position in a gutted SEC than time in prison and being disbarred.

IMO.
Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By G-Dub's Wishlist on 12/6/2006 7:31 PM
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Re: Aguirre Senate Judiciary Committee Audio Now Available; 'lilGW A Further Embarrassment to Upright Bipeds By gregcable2002 on 12/7/2006 6:33 AM
Is the SEC afraid of the elite on Wall Street?

By David Weidner, MarketWatch
Last Updated: 12:01 AM ET Dec 7, 2006

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- If you watched any of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings concerning former Securities and Exchange Commission investigator Gary Aguirre you know that he can turn a yes-or-no question into a 50-page legal brief.

On Capitol Hill and in private, the long-winded Aguirre has a lot to say to defend himself, but he doesn't want to be the one to do it. He wants his work to speak for itself. He wants his former colleagues to back him up. He wants the hearings to be the place where reputation is salvaged.

"I'm not going to be my own character witness," Aguirre said when I asked him to defend himself against charges by former bosses that he was "unprofessional" and prone to "disagreements."

"I'm looking for the truth to come out through the Senate investigation," Aguirre said.

Get Aguirre to talk and he levels a very big charge: the SEC bows to big shots on Wall Street. These congressional hearings have never been about Aguirre's investigation into Pequot Capital and insider trading -- that investigation was really in its infancy when it was killed. Aguirre hasn't said John Mack or Pequot Capital Management's Arthur Samberg were guilty of anything.

The issue is not the conduct of Aguirre but the conduct of SEC branch manager Robert Hanson, former SEC associate enforcement director Paul Berger, SEC assistant director Mark Kreitman and ultimately Linda Thomsen, the commission's director of enforcement.

"We can't have two sets of securities laws, one set for those with political connections or those with the right contacts and another set for the rest of us," Aguirre said in an interview. When evidence points the SEC to powerful people, he added "The umpire is looking the other way when he ought to be calling the violation. That's what I had been saying to the senate."

A history of SEC criticism
Aguirre isn't alleging anything new. For as long as there has been an SEC, there's been criticism that the commission is soft on Wall Street and favors the big banks it's supposed to be policing. Big shots at the level of Morgan Stanley's Mack are said to enjoy special protection.

That criticism has ramped up in recent years as New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer took the lead on key investigations into tainted stock research, mutual fund trading abuses and compensation at the New York Stock Exchange. The SEC caught in the transition between Harvey Pitt and William Donaldson.

It's hard to think of an investigation that has brought down a major Wall Street figure since Rudy Giuliani prosecuted Michael Milken in 1989. Only Spitzer's investigations, which netted such figures as Richard Strong of Strong Capital Management and Marsh & McLennan's


Jeffrey Greenberg and others really come close.
Even some of the SEC's marquee cases didn't originate there. Questionable backdating of stock options was revealed by The Wall Street Journal. Corporate governance advocates have been pressing for more disclosure of executive pay for years. Enforcement cases at the SEC have declined for three years in a row.

Aguirre's windmill
Enter Aguirre, a former trial attorney. Those close to him say he was inspired by a letter saying that lawyers had a "special role in our society." It was written to him by Robert Kennedy shortly before his death in 1968.

Whether it be his testimony or his letters to SEC brass, it doesn't require a lot of imagination to see why he rubbed his bosses the wrong way. Aguirre is at times stubborn and combative. He believes his protest is a moral issue.

In his defense, those same critical bosses also had awarded Aguirre a big raise and glowing review shortly before the SEC machine appears to have turned into something out of a John Grisham novel.

Former SEC investigators and attorneys have rushed to the defense of the commission. They say the commission was unafraid of pursuing the powerful. But many of those defenders worked during a different time. Two of his colleagues, including L. Hilton Foster, one of the commission's foremost experts on insider trading, have testified on his behalf.

Aguirre said he's hoping the Senate Judiciary Committee will rescue what he's lost in reputation. In recent hearings, committee members, led by Sens. Charles Grassley and Arlen Specter, have grilled SEC officials over their treatment of Aguirre and have criticized the commission's practices.


Fate in the hands of Congress
Most everyone was skeptical when congress took up Aguirre's fight this fall. But the hearings have eroded the commission's integrity. Two more SEC officials including Eric Ribelin, branch chief of the SEC's office of market surveillance, have backed Aguirre's side of the story. Ribelin said "something smelled rotten."

In a statement sent to me by the senator's office Spector said "It wasn't rotten. It was smell...He was doing outstanding work -- whatever language that was -- and then they manufactured a reevaluation as the basis for firing him. Totally, totally unjustified." He said the SEC's actions have "an overtone of a coverup."

Until the committee issues its report in February, the Government Accountability Office has signed off on an investigation into the SEC's enforcement division. Maybe Aguirre will throw "tantrums," storm out of the house and sneer at his dog.
In the end, it doesn't really matter if we believe Gary Aguirre. What matters is if we believe the SEC.

David Weidner covers Wall Street for MarketWatch.


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