By Patrick Clark 10/03/12 8:50am

Morning Read

Damages May Reach Billions As NYAG Files More Suits; Large Firms Positioned for New Marketing Rules: Roundup

Wall Street firms face billions in potential damages after New York State AG Eric Schneiderman brought civil charges against JPMorgan this week for mortgage-packaging standards at Bear Stearns, which JPMorgan acquired in 2008. The lawsuit, which has been criticized for offering little new information, is the first tort filed by a federal-state task force formed by President Barack Obama earlier this year. Mr. Schneiderman said yesterday that other suits would follow.

From engineering financial instruments to building the world’s biggest Ferris wheel, climb aboard with Matt Chaban for former Bear Stearns Asset Management CEO Richard Marin’s wild ride.

Former Wells Fargo Chairman Dick Kovacevich will not abide arguments that the U.S. government bailed out his bank, especially not in his country club’s men’s dining room.

Large firms such as BlackRock are best positioned to take advantage of JOBS Act provisions that would lift the ban on advertising by private investment firms, Bloomberg reports. One reason: bigger money managers already have marketers on staff to work on products such as mutual funds. Read More

By Matt Chaban 10/02/12 10:30pm

Machers

(Victor Juhasz)

The Ups and Downs of Rich Marin, the Ex-Banker Building the World’s Biggest Ferris Wheel

Rich Marin is big. For more than three decades, he dominated Wall Street, creating some of the industry’s most exotic investments, making billions for his clients, and millions for himself. One of his minions blew a hole in the side of Bankers Trust, a firm Mr. Marin helped transform into a derivatives powerhouse, and still he held on for the ride, becoming the youngest managing director ever at the bank. It all came crashing down five years ago, when the hedge funds he oversaw at Bear Stearns imploded. The rest of the world followed within the year. But there was Mr. Marin, standing amid the wreckage, helping rescue an overzealous Israeli diamond magnate who had plowed $3 billion into prime U.S. real estate just as the frothing market froze over. He rescued the firm, only to be unceremoniously fired two years to the day after he joined.

Now Rich Marin wants to build the world’s largest ferris wheel—in Staten Island, naturally—and the mayor just gave him his blessing.

Did we mention he is big? At the announcement of the project last Thursday, Mr. Marin absolutely dwarfed Mayor Bloomberg and Senator Chuck Schumer, along with the other dignitaries gathered at the ferry terminal. But despite his imposing size—he stands 6-foot-5 and is built like an offensive lineman—Mr. Marin is probably one of the gentlest people on the Street. Were he a real bear, rather than having worked for one, Mr. Marin would be not a grizzly but a teddy. This may help explain his turbulent career. Read More

By Patrick Clark 10/02/12 7:14pm

carrying a tort

charlotte skyline night

New York’s Banking Center Won’t Last If Lawsuits Don’t Stop, Analyst Says

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a civil lawsuit against JPMorgan yesterday, charging the firm with widespread fraud committed by the mortgage securitization unit of Bear Stearns, which JPMorgan acquired in 2008. Not everyone was impressed.

JPMorgan spokesman Joe Evangelisti said the bank was “disappointed” that Mr. Schneiderman filed his lawsuit without giving Read More

By Patrick Clark 9/24/12 11:43am

murder-suicide

300px-NewCanaanRRstaTracksideView07222007

New Canaan Man Suspected of Shootings Was Former Bear Stearns, Lehman Banker

The New Canaan, Conn. believed to have shot and killed his wife on Friday before turning his weapon on himself was a former Wall Street banker previously employed at Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Bank of America, according to reports.

James D. Owen, 48, had worked on mergers and acquisitions and mid-market financing for the telecommunications industry at The Bank Street Group, according to investigative reporter Teri Buhl, who first reported on Mr. Owens’ Wall Street connections. Mr. Owen had also worked for Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Banc of America Securities, according to Business Insider. The latter firm was an investment banking subsidiary to Bank of America. Read More

By Mike Taylor 12/01/10 7:51pm

Bailouts

Here Are A Few Winners of the Fed Bailout Sweepstakes

The Federal Reserve’s $3.3 trillion in bailout maneuvering during the past three years of financial apocalypse has been complicated, and so it’s difficult to isolate one particular “winner” from the many, many institutions who benefited from the central bank’s largesse. But let’s give it a shot anyway.

According to Bloomberg, “Bank of America Read More

By Max Abelson 11/17/10 2:39am

Where Are They Now?

“Have you ever noticed,” the chairman of Citigroup, Richard D. Parsons, asked The Observer this Monday evening, “that in the NFL, or in the NBA, or in Major League Baseball, this guy was a failure at Cleveland, and then he becomes the coach in Houston? These guys just move around from one team to another. Read More

By Max Abelson 9/14/10 10:47pm

Money Never Sleeps: Wall Street, Stoned

“Are you a bee? Do you like to sting people?” a handsome banking executive in a merlot-colored suit growls to his protégé. It is early afternoon in the third-floor offices of a midtown skyscraper, the News Corporation headquarters, and select middle-aged men are watching an advanced screening of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the Oliver Read More

By Max Abelson 8/18/10 2:40am

Ralph Cioffi, After the Fall

“My entire family, we try not to dwell on or think about the events of the last two or three years,” Ralph Cioffi, the former Bear Stearns hedge fund manager, said on a recent weekday. He was sitting in a low-rise office complex next to a car wash in suburban New Jersey. “I guess if Read More