traci gregory AGENCY

Dan Slater writes in the Wall Street Journal LAW BLOG: Bear Fund Managers Get Good Draw, Sizing Up Judge Block So, Justice Carries a Swift Sword?  We’ll See – Curiously, a poster named “Anonymous”, says “the sub-prime mess  . . . has plenty of people who deserve fines and jail time . . . BUT these guys are not the scapegoats we need.” Well, gee, they thought up the hedge funds, created them, bought the mortgage backed securities, and then (!) CIOFFI was charged with insider trading for moving TWO MILLION DOLLARS OF HIS MONEY out of the fund . . . leaving institutional investors in the fund with no warning . . . when they knew the fund was in danger. They may not be the scapegoats we NEED, but it certainly appears they need to be in front of a judge for the way they ran the funds!

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York handed down indictments for Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin formerly with Bear Stearns.  You may or may not recognize them as the brains (if you will forgive me) behind the Bear Stearns High Grade Structured Credit Strategies Fund (begun  in 2003) and the Bear Stearns High Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Fund (begun  in 2006), both of which failed miserably earlier this year. From the US Attorney’s Office (Eastern District of New York) Press Release   “… The indictment alleges that by March 2007, the defendants believed that the Funds were in grave condition and at risk of collapse. However, rather than alerting the Funds’ investors and creditors to the bleak prospects of the Funds and facilitating an orderly wind-down, the defendants made misrepresentations to stave off withdrawal of investor funds and increased margin calls from creditors in the ultimately futile hope that the Funds’ prospects would improve and that the defendants’ incomes and reputations would remain intact. ” (italics all mine) “… The subsequent collapse of the Funds during the summer of 2007 resulted in losses to investors totaling more than $1 billion.” CIOFFI was also charged with insider trading, as I understand it, for moving TWO MILLION DOLLARS OF HIS OWN MONEY out of the fund and into another. Probably one that didn’t fail, doncha guess? Attorneys for the men maintain their innocence . . . Well, would they get paid otherwise? I understand the FBI is investigating 19 other companies who were originating and securitizing sub-prime loans for accounting fraud, insider trading, and the failure to disclose true valuations. Lovely ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Billed as social networking with a bite  (pun intended I suppose) the Black Widow Network is designed to send real estate investment deals direct to your in-box . . . Other websites designed to take advantage of REOs and the possibility of making money off them are BiggerPockets.Com PropertyShark.Com Krunching.Com If you’re looking for deals – try them out -