The Daily Caveat

New Beginning - UPDATE THOSE FEEDS AND BOOKMARKS!

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 20:44:00 +0000

Hi all. Today is the day. The trucks are loaded and all the breakables have been carefully swaddled in bubblewrap. Provided all the behind the scenes tech-type stuff goes off without a hitch, The Daily Caveat will start anew on Monday at www.dailycaveat.com.

We'll be waving a fond farewell to two wonderful years spent with Caveat Research and settling in to our new digs at dailycaveat.com. The site will feature much the same content with a whole new look. We'll also be implementing a variety of new features once we get things up and running. Exciting times.

For those of you who come to us via syndication, you are cordially invited to update your feed as follows: www.michaeldavidthomas.com/dailycaveat/atom.xml

Thanks again for two great years. And thanks to my friend and former partner Anthony Sartori for giving me the time to arrange the changeover for the blog. I wish him the best of luck with contining the success of Caveat Research, a company that I will be eternally proud that I had a hand in founding.

If you'd like to reach me or are having problems accessing the new site, please do send me a note care of: dailycaveat (at) gmail.com.

See ya'll Monday.

-- MDT

Dealbreaker.com...New to Me and Lots of Fun

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 03:02:00 +0000

If you're not already a regular reader, give a look at Dealbreaker.com, which describes itself as "an online business tabloid & Wall Street gossip blog." These are, of course, a few of my favorite things. And they have interns - interns, by God...

The site is run by former Gawker blogger Elizabeth Spears, late of mediabistro.com. And just like Gawker, it appears that Dealbreaker, which was launched in January 2006, is planning an empire.

Apparently Wall Street oriented blogs, of which I would say The Daily Caveat is certainly one, are an actual, verifiable, bloggerati trend now.

-- MDT

No End in Sight on Options Inquiryhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 01:55:00 +0000

The latest, from the ever-reliable FT. Meanwhile, analysts handicap who might be next.

-- MDT

NAB Scandal Claims Two More

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 11:28:00 +0000

Australians David Bullen and Vince Ficarra, both late of the National Australia Bank, are facing jail time for their role in a financial scandal that has already claimed two NAB execs. The two ginned up some $360 million in false profits to hide the losses they had accumulated while playing with other peoples' money. Here's the transcript of an interview with Ficarra from Australian telly about how it all went off the tracks.

-- MDT

Shenanhigans...

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:24:00 +0000

Those of you visiting via a feed will notice nothing. Those of you clicking directly to the site may notice...changes...

We're (well, ok my illustrious web designer - I no speakee HTML) doing some experiementation with the blog design prior to the move (announced below). If you have things you'ld like to see in this space, please do let me know. As soon as we have the new feed location set up we'll give the word, but please go ahead and bookmark www.dailycaveat.com, which will be this blog's new home.

-- MDT

Happy Fourth!

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 01:58:00 +0000

The D.C. area just can't seem to get out from under the (literal) dark cloud of constant RAIN. Inches and more inches. Still, the weather cooperated long enough for locals to indulge in the annual fireworks display on the national mall.

As we've done every year since we moved into the Virginia burbs, we watched the show from the fine vantage point offered by the Iwo Jima memorial, just across the river.

Wherever you were on the 4th, happy Independance Day!

-- MDT

Ken Lay, Former Enron Chair, Dead?

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 14:11:00 +0000

Drudge is reporting that Ken Lay has died of a heart attack this morning... No word on the newswires as yet, but it is sure to come. Unless there has been a serious misunderstanding.

UPDATE: The details. From NPR, the Ken Lay timeline. And...the rehabilitative eulogies begin.

All sympathies, of course go out to the Lay family, who are no-doubt hurting right now.

-- MDT

ATTENTION: The Daily Caveat is Moving

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 03:00:00 +0000

And I am moving on...

Effective this month, I'm departing Caveat Research and leaving the reigns in the hands of my former partner and Caveat co-founder, Anthony Sartori. We've decided that The Daily Caveat will make the move with me and will continue at a new location (www.dailycaveat.com).

Things aren't quite live at the new site but all should be up and running by the end of next week. Updates will be posted here to allow our regular readers (THANK-YOU ALL!) to update their bookmarks and feeds for the switch. So keep your eyes peeled.

Fresh posts may be erratic over the next few days as I focus on getting the new home ready. I hope that you'll come along for the ride. Thanks for visiting me here in this space over the last two years. I look forward to even better things to come.

Tony and I continue to be great friends; establishing and growing Caveat in partnership with both Tony and our third co-fonder, Thea Bournazian has been one of the highlights of my professional career. I have every faith in continued success under Tony's guidance and remain Caveat's biggest fan.

More on my new whereabouts in the next week...

-- MDT

Former SEC Attorney Turns Whistleblower on Hedge Fund Regulation, States Feds Mull New Regs

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 02:44:00 +0000

Well now this is likely to heat up...

Gary Aguirre, the former SEC attorney who headed the investigation into Pequot Capital Management Inc (which is currently facing insider trading charges) has claimed in Congressional testimony that he was told by higher-ups at the SEC to lay off Pequot because the fund's "very powerful political connections" would have made pursuing the case difficult. Aguirre was subsequently fired from the SEC and to say relations between he and his former employer have been...tense...would not be an understatement. Meanwhile, SEC hedge fund regulation seems to be vaporizing in the face of a successful court challenge and both federal and state legislators are rattling their sabers and taking matters into their own hands.

Is a turf war brewing? And what of Pequot?

-- MDT

The Milberg Indictment

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 02:55:00 +0000

Political? If the American Enterprise Institute is involved...surely not. Perish the thought. However, it should be noted - that which is politically motived can, in fact, expose that which is illegal. Time will tell.

-- MDT

Data Insecurity at the GAO?

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 02:22:00 +0000

Regular readers of this space will already be aware that I am, in general, a big fan of the GAO, the former General Accounting Office, recently given the un-sexy new backronym Government Accountability Office. Normally it is the GAO that lays down the law on government waste, fraud or incompentence, but this week it was their turn to take the credibility hit. Apparently the agency has inadvertently exposed personal information for some 1,000 people via its website, GAO.gov. The personal details were included on 1970s-era defense department travel vouchers. While there has been no indication that data (which included the identity theft rosetta stone, social security numbers) has been misused, the GAO has made a point of removing it from their website.

The Daily Caveat still loves ya guys.

-- MDT

Busy Week for Hedge Fundies

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 03:19:00 +0000

It has been a win some, lose some week for hedge funds. Just as alternative investment managers were celebrating a court victory dismantling the SEC's meager regulatory regime, key congressional leaders have announced plans to turn their attention to the conduct of hedge funds. And that Pequot Capital investigation just makes things all the more interesting...

-- MDT

Chicago Lawyer The Latest to Face Scrutiny Over Connection to Milberg Securities Cases

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 01:56:00 +0000

Last week it was Denver, Colorado's Gary Lozlow. This week it is William Cavanagh of the Springfield, Illinois law firm Cavanagh & O'Hara who has come under scrutiny for his role in several cases involving the embattled plaintiffs' firm, Milberg Weiss. Milberg is currently under indictment in relation to charges that the firm paid kickbacks to individuals in exchange for their serving as leap plaintiffs in the firm's class action securities litigation.

While none of the charges in the Milberg indictment stem from cases that involved Cavanagh's firm, prosecutors have cast an increasingly wide (and some have alleged, politically motivated) net. Cavanagh's activities have come into question because he acted concurrently as a consultant to Milberg whilse simultaneously serving as General Counsel for the Illinois Central Laborers' Pension Fund, a post he has held for 16 years.

More here. And still more, here.

-- MDT

FBI Declares Data Brokers Actions Illegal (Despite the Fact that the FBI was a Customer)

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 02:01:00 +0000

Following a second day of testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce concerning the activities of internet data brokers involved in the pretextual collection and resale of private phone records, a representative from the FBI declared that the actions of these brokers "probably act illegal." This despite the fact that the FBI has recently been outed as a customer of these same types of brokers. Some might call this a government end-run around the fourth amendment. Others might simply find it to be hypocrisy.

All this, of course, is bad news for responsible investigators everywhere.

-- MDT

Eleven Data Brokers Take the 5th in Congressional Testimony

mdt@caveat.net (Michael Thomas) — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 02:42:00 +0000

Continuing our thread from yesterday, eleven data brokers asserted their fifth amendement rights today during congressional testimony today concerning the pretextual collection and re-sale of personal telephone records. Apparently the testimony from James Rapp, a former Colorado data broker was pretty incendiary stuff, as he described in detail the tactics he formerly used to obtain personal and private information.

Rapp has testified before Congress before on this issue, back in February of this year. You can read that testimony here. He rose to infamy few years earlier by impersonating John Ramsey, father of Jon-Benet Ramsey, the six year old whose death spawned an entire industry of legal and conspiratorial punditry.

In 2000, Rapp was also sentenced to 100 days in jail for using fraudulent means to obtain information on behalf of his clients. The Rapp case was actually cited in Senate testimony in 2003 as evidence of the "Homeland Security Threats Posed By Document Fraud." Interesting then that based on recent reports law enforcement agencies have become steady clients for a new wave of phone records dealers.

Congressional hearings are supposed to resume tomorrow. Details of the hearings can be found here.

-- MDT