| TENSION AT S.E.C. OVER MORTGAGE CASES After months of investigating the role of Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and others in troubled mortgage securities â€" and even warning that enforcement actions were possible â€" the Securities and Exchange Commission shelved those cases and at least two others.
Behind that decision was a a series of arguments about whether Wall Street’s top regulator had evidence strong enough to prevail at trial, DealBook’s Peter Eavis and Ben Protess report. That internal tension raises questions about whether the agency could have done even more after the crisis to hold Wall Street accountable.
Some of those decisions traced to concerns about the evidence, with senior officials questioning whether the investigators’ devotion to the cases had colored their judgments. Other times, the decisions came down to dollars and cents.
INSIDE THE STEINBERG TRIAL JURY ROOM After more than nine hours of deliberations, the 12 jurors couldn’t decide whether Michael S. Steinberg, a former top trader at SAC Capital Advisors, explicitly knew that his subordinate was giving him illegal tips.
But on Wednesday, the group had a breakthrough, and by 2:59 p.m. voted to convict the onetime hedge fund executive of five counts of insider trading, DealBook’s Alexandra Stevenson and Rachel Abrams report.
Interviews with five of the 12 jurors â€" a diverse group that included two accountants and a former postal worker â€" showed that they had grappled with the financial jargon of a complicated Wall Street insider trading case.
Their decision has given federal prosecutors both a victory and more confidence in their broad-ranging campaign against insider trading, White Collar Watch’s Peter J. Henning writes. It was a hard-fought win, especially since Mr. Steinberg was a fourth-level recipient of insider information who never dealt with any of its original sources.
THE INVESTORS’ SIDE OF ‘THE WOLF OF WALL STREET’ The tale of Jordan Belfort is hitting movie theaters on Christmas Day, as Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese retell how the broker swindled thousands of investors out of more than $100 million in a boiler room scam.
But left untold in “The Wolf of Wall Street†is the story of his victims, disparaged as “garbage†in the movie, Susan Antilla writes in DealBook. For many, including small-business owners and insurance agents, the film’s publicity has brought back old pain.
That’s not the only element missing from the cinematic romp. Joe Nocera writes in The New York Times that “The Wolf of Wall Street†doesn’t touch on the part of the finance industry that caused the financial crisis.
“Firms like Stratton Oakmont can’t bring the financial system to the precipice,†Mr. Nocera writes, adding that using the brokerage as a proxy for Wall Street “doesn’t begin to get at Wall Street’s sins.â€
PERELMAN GIVES $50 MILLION TO HOSPITAL Ronald O. Perelman’s visit to his father-in-law at the hospital last year opened his eyes and inspired his latest bout of philanthropy.
The financier announced on Thursday that he would donate $50 million to finish the construction of an expanded emergency department for the NYU Langone Medical Center in Lower Manhattan, Ms. Abrams reports.
“I just don’t think it’s fair to the people who lived down there to have to go all the way up to New York hospital at 72nd Street to get emergency treatment,†Mr. Perelman said in an interview.
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Jazz Pharmaceuticals to Buy Gentium for $1 Billion  | Jazz Pharmaceuticals has agreed to acquire Gentium, a developer of treatments for rare diseases, in a deal valued at about $1 billion.
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Calculating the Benefits of a Charter-Time Warner Cable Deal  | Executives at Liberty Media, whose chairman, John Malone, owns 27 percent of Charter Communications, believe a Charter tie-up with Time Warner Cable could achieve about $700 million in annual cost savings, Reuters reports.
Reuters
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E.ON Considering Sale of Spanish Businesses  | The German utility E.ON considers selling its Spanish businesses, Reuters reports.
Reuters
Trouble Assessing JPMorgan’s Commodities Unit  | Potential bidders for a commodities trading business owned by JPMorgan Chase, which include some of its closest rivals, say the bank is declining to release information about the unit, making it difficult to value the operation, The Financial Times writes.
Financial Times
Evonik Invited to Make New Bid For LTS Lohmann  | Reuters writes: “The owners of German medical skin patch maker LTS Lohmann have invited Evonik to make a new bid for the company after finding final offers from other bidders unsatisfactory.â€
Reuters
Italian Post Office to Invest 75 Million Euros in Alitalia  | Poste Italiane, the state-owned company that runs the Italian postal system, will pay 75 million euros, or about $103 million, to take a stake in the airline Alitalia, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Wall Street Journal
Deal to Give Daimler Stake in Aston Martin  | Daimler will get as much as a 5 percent stake in Aston Martin as part of a deal to supply the British sports carmaker with engines and other components, Reuters writes.
Reuters
Panasonic to Form Joint Venture With Israeli Firm  | The Panasonic Corporation and the Israeli chipmaker TowerJazz are forming a joint venture to manufacture computer chips for automobiles and products, Reuters reports.
Reuters
Real Estate Trusts in $4.34 Billion Merger  | Essex Property Trust, a residential real estate investment trust with a strong California presence, has agreed to acquire BRE Properties.
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DealBook »
Loophole Slowly Tightens on a Bank  | It wasn’t bad loans that created big losses for Zions Bankcorporation, it was ill-fated and ill-timed financial innovation, Floyd Norris of The New York Times writes.
New York Times
Fed to Remain Large Player in Mortgage Security Market  | The Federal Reserve will continue to play a large role in the mortgage security market despite efforts to shrink its buying of bonds, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Wall Street Journal
Deal on Banking Union Will Test Goal of United Europe  | The effort to create a banking union has highlighted how difficult it is to act ambitiously for a bloc that has grown from six to 28 member states, The International New York Times writes.
International New York Times
Lloyds and R.B.S. Seek to Regain Independence  | The Lloyds Banking Group and the Royal Bank of Scotland are on much different paths as they seek to gain independence from the British government five years after their bailouts during the financial crisis, Reuters reports.
Reuters
Credit Suisse Gains a Top Energy Banker  | Brian McCabe is leaving Morgan Stanley and joining the Swiss investment bank as co-head of its Americas oil and gas group. He will be based in Houston.
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Citi to Move Headquarters to Lower Manhattan  | Citigroup has agreed to move its global headquarters to Greenwich Street in Lower Manhattan in a $1 billion real estate deal, Crain’s New York reports.
Crains New York
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Carlyle Takes Stake in Indian Health Care Company  | The private equity firm the Carlyle Group is taking a stake in Global Health, an Indian health care provider, Reuters reports.
Reuters
Investors Cutting Ties With ConvergEx After Plea  | After paying a $150 million fine and a guilty plea by a subsidiary related to charges of “fleecing†of clients, several large investors have redirected their trading activity from ConvergEx, which is controlled by the private equity firm GTCR and Bank of New York Mellon, The Financial Times reports.
Financial Times
Invesco Manager to Join Britain’s Oakley Capital  | Neil Woodford, head of British equities at Invesco Perpetual, has agreed to join the British private equity firm Oakley Capital in May in an unspecified role, The Financial Times reports.
Financial Times
Skowron to Repay Morgan Stanley After Guilty Plea  | A federal judge ordered the former Morgan Stanley fund manager Joseph Skowron to repay $31 million in compensation as part of a clawback lawsuit by the bank after he pleaded guilty to insider trading two years ago, Bloomberg News reports.
Bloomberg
BlackRock Raising $3 Billion For Credit Fund  | BlackRock is looking to raise as much as $3 billion for a new hedge fund to focus on investing in the credit markets, Bloomberg News reports.
Bloomberg
Tiger Asia Hedge Fund Ordered to Repay $5.8 Million Over Illegal Trading  | Tiger Asia, a regional arm of the New York-based hedge fund Tiger Management, admitted that it had received advanced notice in late 2008 and early 2009 that two Chinese banks were planning share placements.
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DealBook »
BlueCrest Capital Taps Bank Loan to Fund Expansion  | BlueCrest Capital Management received a $750 million bank loan earlier this year as part of a rapid expansion of the European hedge fund, Bloomberg News reports.
China Everbright Bank Shares Fall on Trading Debut  | The trading slump came after the bank raised $3 billion in Hong Kong’s biggest initial public offering of the year, and despite generally strong market receptions for new Chinese share sales in recent weeks.
DealBook »
Overstock.com to Accept Bitcoin Payments  | Overstock.com is planning to accept payments from Bitcoin, making it the first large online retailer in the United States to accept the virtual currency, The Financial Times reports.
Financial Times
China’s Central Bank Targeted in Cyber Attack  | The Times of London writes: “China’s central bank is thought to have been targeted yesterday in a revenge cyber-attack by investors infuriated at government attempts to destroy the local Bitcoin market.â€
Times of London
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Deutsche Bank Securities Is Fined $6.5 Million  | The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined Deutsche Bank Securities $6.5 million over “serious financial and operational deficiencies primarily related to its enhanced lending program.â€
DealBook »
Ex-Microsoft Employee Charged With Insider Trading  | The Seattle Times writes: “A former Microsoft finance manager and his day-trading friend appeared in federal court Thursday on charges they used insider information to raise seed money for their dream of owning a hedge fund.â€
Seattle Times
Banks Turning in Competitors in Currency Trading Inquiry  | Banks are turning in their competitors in hopes of avoiding fines in an European Union investigations into potential manipulation of the currency trading markets, Bloomberg News reports.
Bloomberg
Italy Investigating Reorganization of Telecom Italia’s Holding Company  | Reuters writes: “Rome prosecutors are investigating the reorganization of the shareholding of Telco, the holding company that controls Telecom Italia, the chief prosecutor said.â€
Reuters
Ex-Stock Broker Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading  | David Weishaus, a former stock broker, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in a scheme to improperly trade ahead of the announcement of a $1.2 billion acquisition by IBM in 2009, Reuters reports.
Reuters
Forbes Family in Tax Dispute Over Former Headquarters  | The Wall Street Journal writes: “Steve Forbes and members of his family are enmeshed in a tax dispute with the Internal Revenue Service tied to their publishing company’s former New York headquarters, documents filed in U.S. Tax Court reveal.â€
Wall Street Journal
S.&P. Pulls AAA Rating From E.U.  | Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the European Union from triple A to AA-plus, citing continued financial concerns and disagreements about its budget, The Financial Times writes.
Financial Times
