Stanley Freeman Druckenmiller is an American investor, hedge fund manager and philanthropist. He is the former chairman and president of Duquesne Capital, which he founded in 1981. He closed the fund in August 2010 because he felt unable to deliver high returns to his clients. At the time of closing, Duquesne Capital had over $12 billion in assets. From 1988 to 2000, he managed money for George Soros as the lead portfolio manager for Quantum Fund. In 2017, his net worth was estimated at $4.4 billion. Druckenmiller graduated from Bowdoin College (BA) at the University of Michigan.
Subject: Michael E. Novogratz
Subject of Interest
Michael E. Novogratz is the CEO of Galaxy Digital Holdings and a co-founder of Galaxy Digital LP — a cryptocurrency-focused merchant bank based in New York. Formerly a fund manager at the Fortress Investment Group, Novogratz is a noted cryptocurrency proponent, saying in 2017 that at least 20% of his net worth was in Bitcoin and Ether. Prior to joining Fortress, he was a partner at Goldman Sachs where he spent much time abroad. Novogratz is a 1987 graduate of Princeton University.
Subject: Mark Valentine
Subject of Interest
Mark Valentine was the former chairman of Thomson Kernaghan & Co., a securities broker-dealer located in Ontario, Canada. Valentine controlled a significant amount of C-Me-Run, Inc. (“C-Me-Run”), SoftQuad Software, Ltd. (“SoftQuad”) and JagNotes.com, Inc. (“JagNotes”) stocks. He was arrested by German authorities in 2002 relating to a massive securities fraud and money-laundering scam that has resulted in indictments against 58 people. In 2004, Valentine pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud in violation of Title 15 of the United States Code, Section 78j(b) and 78ff before the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, in Unites States v. Mark Valentine, et al., Criminal Indictment No. 02-80088-CR-Cohn. On May 21, 2004, a judgment in the criminal case was entered against Valentine. Valentine was sentenced to four years of probation with nine months of home detention and other special conditions of supervision and ordered to pay a $100 assessment to the court.
Administrative Proceeding: Paul D. Lemmon, Mark Valentine, and Michael Vlahovic
Media: David Dayen
Media
David Dayen is the executive editor of The American Prospect. He also writes regularly for The Intercept and The Nation. He is the author of Monopolized: Life in an Age of Corporate Power and Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud. Dayen lives in Venice, California.
Subject: Steven A. Cohen
Subject of Interest
Steven A. Cohen is an American billionaire hedge fund manager, He is the founder of hedge funds Point72 Asset Management and now-closed S.A.C. Capital Advisors, both based in Stamford, Connecticut. In 2013, the Cohen-founded S.A.C. Capital Advisors pleaded guilty to insider trading and agreed to pay $1.8 billion in fines in one of the biggest criminal cases against a hedge fund. Cohen was prohibited from managing outside money for 2 years as part of the settlement. The hedge fund agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and four counts of securities fraud and to close to outside investors.
Subject: Richard Choo-Beng Lee
Subject of Interest
Richard Choo-Beng Lee, who co-founded Spherix Capital and once was an analyst at SAC Capital, pled guilty in 2009 along with Spherix co-founder Ali Far, admitting to engaging in an insider trading scheme that enabled Spherix to make $5 million. Lee secretly informed on various individuals and recorded several phone calls with 28 people, including billionaire Steven A. Cohen, whose SAC Capital employed Lee as an analyst from 1999 to 2004, prosecutors said. Lee was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan to pay a $100,000 fine in light of his 2009 guilty plea.
Three weeks prison for key informant in U.S. insider-trading cases
Subject: Ali Far
Subject of Interest
Ali Far is a former employee at the Galleon Group. He left in 2008 to start his own Hedge fund (Spherix Capital Partners) with his Partner, Richard Choo-Beng Lee, aka “C.B.” Far was sentenced to one year of probation for his participation in multiple insider trading schemes during which he obtained, shared, and traded based on material, non-public information (“inside information”) stolen from several public companies. Far pled guilty in October 2009 to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of securities fraud pursuant to a cooperation agreement with the government. Together, he and his co-conspirator at Spherix gained approximately $5,209,464 for their hedge fund by placing trades in Spherix accounts based on Inside Information.
Subject: Danielle Chiesi
Subject of Interest
Danielle Chiesi is a former beauty queen turned stock analyst that helped former Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam with insider trading. Chiesi pleaded guilty on three counts of securities fraud, and was sentenced to a West Virginia Prison in 2011. She served 15 months before being released. She agreed to pay $540,000 to settle related civil charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Subject: Raj Rajaratnam
Subject of Interest
Raj Rajaratnam is a Sri Lankan-American former hedge fund manager and founder of the Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund management firm. On October 16, 2009, he was arrested by the FBI for insider trading, which also caused the Galleon Group to fold. He stood trial in U.S. v Rajaratnam (09 Cr. 01184) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and on May 11, 2011, was found guilty on all 14 counts of conspiracy and securities fraud. On October 13, 2011, Rajaratnam was sentenced to 11 years in prison and fined a criminal and civil penalty of over $150 million combined. Rajaratnam was released to home confinement in his Upper East Side Manhattan apartment, located on Sutton Place, in the summer of 2019.
Subject: David M. Solomon
Subject of Interest
David Solomon is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Previously, he was President and Chief Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs. Prior to that, he served as Co-Head of the Investment Banking Division from 2006 to 2016. Before that, Mr. Solomon was Global Head of the Financing Group, which includes all capital markets and derivative products for the firm’s corporate clients. He joined Goldman Sachs as a Partner in 1999.
Subject: John E. Waldron
Subject of Interest
John E. Waldron is President and Chief Operating Officer of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. He is a member of the Goldman Sachs Management Committee and Chair of the Firmwide Client and Business Standards Committee and Firmwide Reputational Risk Committee. Previously, Mr. Waldron was Co-Head of the Investment Banking Division (IBD) from 2014 to 2018. Prior to that, he was Global Head of Investment Banking Services (IBS)/Client Coverage for IBD and had oversight of the IBS Leadership Group, a group he founded in 2010. Earlier in his career, he was Global Co-Head of the Financial Sponsors Group from 2007 to 2009, Co-Head of Leveraged Finance from 2005 to 2007 and Co-Head of the Media and Entertainment Group in IBD from 2002 to 2005. Mr. Waldron joined Goldman Sachs in 2000 and was named Managing Director in 2001 and Partner in 2002.
Subject: Stephen M. Scherr
Subject of Interest
Stephen M. Scherr is Chief Financial Officer of Goldman Sachs. He serves on the Management Committee, Firmwide Risk Committee, Firmwide Asset Liability Committee and Firmwide Investment Policy Committee. Scherr joined Goldman Sachs in 1993 as an Associate in the Financial Institutions Group. In 1996, he transferred to Emerging Markets/Capital Markets in the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities Division. In 1998, Scherr moved to the Communications, Media and Entertainment Group. He served as Chief Operating Officer for the Investment Banking Division from 2005 to 2007 and was Head of the Americas Financing Group before serving as Global Head of the Financing Group from 2008 to 2014.
Subject: John F. W. Rogers
Subject of Interest
John F. W. Rogers serves as Executive Vice President, the firm’s Chief of Staff and Secretary to the Board of Directors of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.. He oversees Executive Administration and is responsible for the firm’s corporate affairs functions, including public, investor and government relations, as well as corporate engagement. He is also Chairman of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. Mr. Rogers joined Goldman Sachs in 1994. He was named Managing Director in 1997 and Partner in 2000. Previously, Mr. Rogers served as Under Secretary of State for Management at the US Department of State from 1991 to 1993. From 1988 to 1991, he was Executive Vice President of the Oliver Carr Company. Earlier, Mr. Rogers served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 1985 to 1987 and as an Assistant to the President of the United States at the White House from 1981 to 1985.
Subject: Laurence Stein
Subject of Interest
Laurence Stein is the Chief Administrative Officer of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. He is a member of the Management Committee, Client and Business Standards Committee and Enterprise Risk Committee. Prior to his current role, Stein was Global Head of the Operations Division. From 2009 to 2015, he served as Chief Operating Officer of the Securities Division. From 2005 to 2009, Mr. Stein was Chief Financial Officer for the Investment Banking Division and the Federation, and before that, served as Chief Financial Officer of the Securities Division. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1996 in the Finance Division, and was named Managing Director in 2003 and Partner in 2006. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Stein worked in the Financial Services Group at Ernst & Young in New York and Deloitte & Touche in South Africa.
Subject: Beth M. Hammack
Subject of Interest
Beth M. Hammack is the Global Treasurer of Goldman Sachs. She is also Co-Chair of the Firmwide Asset Liability Committee. Previously, Ms. Hammack was Global Head of Short Term Macro trading and global Repo trading. This included franchise market making in short dated G10 interest rate swaps, FX forwards, cross currency basis and repo. Before that, she was Co-Head of US Interest Rate Products cash trading, which included government bonds, agencies and mortgage pass-throughs. Hammack joined Goldman Sachs in 1993 as an Analyst in Capital Markets and then moved to the Interest Rate Products trading desk.
