Foreign Collusion, Naked Shorting (Counterfeiting) & Money Laundering — All Illicit Wealth
Financial Tyranny: Footing The Tax Bill For The Government’s Fiscal Insanity
TYLER DURDEN, 09 April 2021
“We are now speeding down the road of wasteful spending and debt, and unless we can escape we will be smashed in inflation.”- Herbert Hoover
We’re not living the American dream. We’re living a financial nightmare.. Continue reading “Article: Financial Tyranny: Footing The Tax Bill For The Government’s Fiscal Insanity”
BlackRock, State Street Exploring Takeover Of Credit Suisse Asset Management Arm
TYLER DURDEN, 09 April 2021
Earlier, several financial media outlets reported that Credit Suisse was considering dramatically shrinking or selling off its prime brokerage unit, the hedge-fund-focused business that just lost $4.7 billion for the bank, obliterating 18 months of the bank’s average net profits.
But in the last few hours, the focus has shifted to the bank’s asset management unit, amid reports that several American firms might be interested in making a bid, even as the bank has yet to release the final tally of expected losses from the Greensill debacle. Continue reading “Article: BlackRock, State Street Exploring Takeover Of Credit Suisse Asset Management Arm”
LA-Based Actor Charged With Running $227 Million Ponzi Scheme
TYLER DURDEN, 08 April 2021
Zachary Horwitz, a little known LA-based actor, has been arrested by the FBI this week and was charged with running “an enormous ponzi scheme” wherein he represented that he had a successful film distribution company.
The reality was that the actor – who has had some roles in small films – was cheating his investors out of $227 million and using most of the money to fund his own lifestyle, according to the NY Post. Horwitz also “used investor funds to pay in cash for a $5.7 million home in Los Angeles’s Beverlywood neighborhood,” the Wall Street Journal added. Continue reading “Article: LA-Based Actor Charged With Running $227 Million Ponzi Scheme”
Is Another Family Office Blowing Up: JPM Dumps 9MM Share Block Of ASO After Hours
TYLER DURDEN, 07 April 2021
In the aftermath of the Archegos blow up, the biggest nightmare on Wall Street – where there is never just one cockroach – is that (many) more Archegos-style, highly levered “family office” blow ups are waiting just around the corner.
Well, in a transaction after the close that is sure to spark much heated controversy tonight and tomorrow morning, Bloomberg announced that JPMorgan was offering a 9 million block of Academy Sports and Outdoors (ASO) stock. Since this is virtually identical to what happened two Fridays ago when similar public BWICs by Goldman and other banks proceeded to unwind the Archegos portfolio, the immediate question on everyone’s lips is whether a second highly levered family office has blown up. Continue reading “Article: Is Another Family Office Blowing Up: JPM Dumps 9MM Share Block Of ASO After Hours”
Fallout From Greensill Collapse Splatters British Government, Leaves Taxpayers With Big Losses
TYLER DURDEN, 07 April 2021
The collapse of UK-based supply chain finance firm Greensill Capital continues to reverberate. In Germany the private banking association has paid out around €2.7 billion to more than 20,500 Greensill Bank customers as part of its deposit guarantee scheme after the bank collapsed in early March. But the deposits of institutional investors such as other financial institutions, investment firms, and local authorities are not covered. Fifty municipalities are believed to be nursing losses of at least €500 million. Continue reading “Article: Fallout From Greensill Collapse Splatters British Government, Leaves Taxpayers With Big Losses”
Goldman Bought $100M Of Deliveroo Shares During “Worst IPO Ever”…And Still Made Money
TYLER DURDEN, 07 April 2021
Goldman Sachs managed to avoid billions of dollars in potential losses from the implosion of highly levered hedge fund Archegos Capital Management by breaking ranks with other syndicate banks to dump large blocks of shares representing Archegos’s exposure to a coterie of tech and media names. When the dust settled, the bank told shareholders any losses would be insignificant, while Credit Suisse, the bank with perhaps the biggest exposure, said Tuesday it has booked a nearly $5 billion loss. Continue reading “Article: Goldman Bought $100M Of Deliveroo Shares During “Worst IPO Ever”…And Still Made Money”
Republicans Slam ‘Hypocritical’ Biden For Funneling $13 Million Through Tax Loopholes
TYLER DURDEN, 05 April 2021
President Biden has come under fire by House Republicans for ‘hypocritically’ using an IRS loophole to avoid paying taxes on $13 million in income for tax years 2017 and 2018, while slamming wealthy Americans for using similar schemes to minimize their tax burden, according to Fox News.
In a scathing letter from the leader of a House conservative caucus Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), the Bidens’ used two S-corporations, the CelticCapri Corporation and the Giacoppa Corporation, to funnel proceeds from book royalties and speaking appearances, “avoiding self-employment payroll tax liabilities that would have flowed to America’s Medicare program that provides care to over 60 million seniors.” Continue reading “Article: Republicans Slam ‘Hypocritical’ Biden For Funneling $13 Million Through Tax Loopholes”
GME Shares Plunge As Company Moves To Sell 3.5M New Shares
TYLER DURDEN, 05 April 2021
More than 2 months have passed since Robinhood shut off trading in Gamestop while the firm’s shares soared past the $400 mark, marking a historic confrontation between an army of GME-hodling “apes” and hedge funds like Melvin Capital, not to mention the mighty hedge fund-market maker Citadel, that would cement GME’s status as a favorite of the “Wall Street Bets” retail-trading army.
But for the first time since the intense retail interest made GME one of the most closely watched tickers on Wall Street, GameStop announced Monday morning that it would issue up to 3.5M new shares in an at-the-money offering. The proceeds will help GME accelerate its pivot to digital, the company said in a prospectus filed with the SEC. Continue reading “Article: GME Shares Plunge As Company Moves To Sell 3.5M New Shares”
Hedge Fund CIO: “At Some Point, Through Inflation, War Or Confiscation, The System Will Restart”
TYLER DURDEN, 04 April 2021
Dusted off an anecdote from 2016 that explores the meaning of money. It is worth considering after a quarter in which the US dollar declined by more than 50% versus the dominant digital assets and the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high.
“People work in order to convert their time into a unit of account,” he said.
“We call that money, and it’s an invention that allows us to store time.” Continue reading “Article: Hedge Fund CIO: “At Some Point, Through Inflation, War Or Confiscation, The System Will Restart””
TYLER DURDEN, 03 April 2021
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are changing the way we think about art (and other collectibles), and in 2021, investors have started to take notice. As Decrypt writes, in the last year, NFTs have shot to the forefront of the crypto space. The cryptographically-unique tokens make it possible to create real-world scarcity for digital objects, and artists have seized on the opportunity presented by the technology.
“It’s not meaningful to characterize a concept as a financial bubble,” said Chris Wilmer, a University of Pittsburgh academic who co-edits a blockchain research journal. Continue reading “Article: Did The NFT Boom Just Burst?”
Deliveroo Debut Declared “Worst IPO In London’s History”, Sign Of Amsterdam’s Growing Dominance
TYLER DURDEN, 02 April 2021
It’s official: the Financial Times (citing an informal polling of anonymous bankers) has declared Deliveroo’s botched London offering the “worst IPO in London’s history.”
As we reported yesterday, shares of the food-delivery competitor, which is struggling to grow market share at all costs in a battle for survival with Uber Eats and “Just Eat Takeaway”, tanked in their public-markets debut, sliding 31% after pricing at the bottom of their range. Bankers immediately started complaining to reporters about being misled by Deliveroo’s bankers, who had initially bragged that the company would price at the high end of the range. The debut, marketed as a major coup for the LSE and London markets, which are struggling for European supremacy with Euronext Amsterdam, more generally, has turned into a major embarrassment for the industry. Continue reading “Article: Deliveroo Debut Declared “Worst IPO In London’s History”, Sign Of Amsterdam’s Growing Dominance”
Another Wirecard? Invoices Backing Greensill-Issued Bonds Never Existed, Administrator Finds
As the collapse of Greensill Capital threatens to ensnare former PM David Cameron in a humiliating public probe, the Financial Times on Thursday reported some disturbing new details that appear to suggest Greensill wasn’t merely reckless, but potentially guilty of a Wirecard-style fraud.
According to the FT, Greensil’s administrator – who is responsible for winding down whatever assets remain and managing creditors’ claims -“has failed to verify invoices underpinning loans to Sanjeev Gupta, after companies listed on the documents denied that they had ever done business with the metals magnate.”
Amazon, Stock Compensation & Equity Valuation
TYLER DURDEN, 01 April 2021
Bloomberg News recently published an article, Amazon Fights Union Drive With Fact-Free Bombast, discussing Amazon’s alleged use of misinformation to prevent employees from unionizing. In the same manner Kailash recused itself from having a “bull” or “bear” thesis on Bitcoin, we will recuse ourselves from any discussion of unions. What we would like to draw our readers’ attention to however is the method by which Amazon pays many senior executives. In the Bloomberg article it noted that the former head of Amazon’s logistics business was awarded stock compensation worth $160 million dollars. Continue reading “Article: Amazon, Stock Compensation & Equity Valuation”
Influential UK Standards Watchdog Targets Cameron’s Greensill Lobbying
TYLER DURDEN, 31 March 2021
By now, the British media has been inundated with reports about the special access afforded Greensill Capital, the trade-finance firm that collapsed and filed for administration three weeks ago after its main insurer declined to renew policies on some of Greensill’s assets, setting off a chain reaction that ensnared some of Europe’s biggest banks (including the embattled Credit Suisse, which is simultaneously fighting off another scandal in the Archegos Capital blowup).
And many of these stories have focused on the firm’s relationship with former Prime Minister David Cameron, who was hired as a senior advisor by the firm after he left No. 10 Downing Street. Cameron continued to lobby on the firm’s behalf, even after the michegas at GAM a few years back that led to the departure of star trader Tim Haywood, one of the most high-profile investors in London. It was reported that alleged misconduct attributed to Haywood had to do with his investments in Greensill paper – paper that was reportedly tied to Sanjay Gupta’s GFG Alliance group of companies, who have also emerged as main characters in the collapse of a group of Credit Suisse funds (the bank is now tallying client losses and even weighing the possibility of reimbursing some of its more important clients who have threatened to take their business elsewhere). Continue reading “Article: Influential UK Standards Watchdog Targets Cameron’s Greensill Lobbying”
THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?
‘Pro-Crypto’ Peter Thiel Warns Bitcoin “Could Be A Chinese Financial Weapon Against The US”