With No Body, Cops Doubt NY Banker's Suicide

(NEWSER) - The CIA is looking for a few good bankers to track down millionaire bad guys and stymie financial terrorism, the New York Post reports. Ads on Bloomberg Radio ask money whizzes to use their “intelligence for the work of a nation.” The $160,000 salary will probably be a pay cut for most applicants—provided they still have a job. Interviews will be held at an undisclosed New York location. More»

Dreier bilked clients, spent cash on yacht and beach houses

(NEWSER) - New York lawyer Marc Dreier pleaded guilty yesterday to selling hundreds of millions in bogus promissory notes to hedge funds and other clients, reports the Times. Dreier, 59, used the $400 million to fund a Manhattan apartment, beachfront houses, and an $18 million yacht. “He has disgraced the honorable profession of law,” said the judge after he entered his plea. More»

(NEWSER) - If past fraud cases are a guide, investors rooked by Bernard Madoff will have to wait quite a while to see even a fraction of their initial investments returned, Reuters reports. Court action is notoriously slow, but that’s only half the problem: Recovering money is possible only if it’s there to find. “I think we are talking less than half,” one lawyer said of the anticipated payout. More»

Hedge fund head who lost $1.4B committed suicide

(NEWSER) - A hedge fund founder whose firm lost $1.4 billion in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme was found dead in his Manhattan office today, an apparent suicide, reports the New York Times. Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, 65, had been trying to recover money for European clients of Access International Advisors, including investment firm Rothschild and Swiss bank UBS. More»

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»