FBI Raids Conn. Hedge Funds

Fairfield Greenwich didn't deliver promised oversight to clients

(NEWSER) - With its clients having lost $7.3 billion in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, a Connecticut hedge-fund advising firm wants the public’s sympathy—but in fact, the Fairfield Greenwich Group took almost $500 million in fees alone from the money Madoff shepherded. And, the New York Times reports, it’s not clear the firm delivered on the strict oversight it promised its investors. More»

Jay Bauer says FBI standards unfair to men

(NEWSER) - Jay Bauer quit his job as an assistant professor, passed a fitness test to enter the FBI's new-agent training program, scored near the top of his class in every area, was selected to be the class leader … and then failed to pass the fitness exam at the FBI Academy by just one pushup, which kept him from being made a special agent. Bauer, who ended up taking a job as an FBI analyst, has now filed a gender-discrimination lawsuit against the FBI, claiming the fitness test is easier for females than it is for males. More»

Bureau could have accessed calls in Afghanistan pre-2001: UK court

(NEWSER) - The FBI missed a big chance to gain intel—compliments of a tapped phone network in Afghanistan—before 9/11 because it was busy fighting with the CIA, according to testimony heard yesterday in Britain's House of Commons. Stay with us on this one: As the Guardian reports, the revelation was made because the UK government wants to hold court cases related to national security in secret. And the official arguing that such a thing should not be permitted in the UK cited a US case as an example. David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, said that the FBI was presented with an incredible opportunity in 1998: to listen in on every single Taliban phone call. More»

Henry King may have leaked inside info to hedge funds

(NEWSER) - Federal investigators have set their sights on famed Goldman Sachs tech analyst Henry King in a broadening insider trading probe. The Feds suspect King, who is known for his spot-on calls, may be leaking inside information from Taiwanese electronic parts manufacturers to US investors, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . To further deepen the intrigue, King counted among his clients the Galleon Group , the hedge fund group at the center of former Goldman director Rajat Gupta's insider trading scandal . More»

Apple founder's character questioned by many interviewees

(NEWSER) - Steve Jobs had an FBI file, assembled during a 1991 background check when Jobs was being considered for an appointment by George HW Bush, and the agency has just made it public after a FOIA request from the Wall Street Journal . Read all 191 pages here , or check out highlights below from the Journal and Gawker :

• Jobs' past drug use is a frequent topic in the file, but interviewees seem to agree that he had left that lifestyle behind him.
• One man calling himself a former "good friend" of Jobs said that the Apple founder is "basically … honest and trustworthy," but that "his moral character is suspect." Jobs, the man continued, "alienated a large number of people at Apple, as a result of his ambition."
• Another source did not want to discuss Jobs, due to "questions concerning his ethics and morality."