WG’s Greenwood, Walsh

WG’s Greenwood, Walsh Boosted Lavish Life, U.S. Says

By David Voreacos, Patricia Hurtado and David Scheer

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Money managers Paul Greenwood and Stephen Walsh said they outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index for a decade, while prosecutors and regulators claim they misappropriated $554 million from investors for luxury homes, cars, horses and collectible teddy bears.

Greenwood, 61, and Walsh, 64, were charged yesterday with using WG Trading Investors and related companies as a “personal piggy bank” from 1996 to this year. Investors who lost money include public pension funds in Iowa and California, and the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.

The men, who touted a conservative “enhanced stock indexing” strategy, had the majority of investor funds sent to themselves, according to the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission. Greenwood signed promissory notes promising to repay $291 million, while Walsh promised to repay $261 million, authorities said.

.....

CFTC Complaint

The Commodities Futures Trading Commission also sued Greenwood and Walsh yesterday, saying they misappropriated $553 million of $1.3 billion in funds from commodity pool investors. They used funds from new participants to cover prior losses, while spending $160 million on personal expenses, the CFTC said in the complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan.

The expenses included rare books bought at auctions, Steiff teddy bears bought for $80,000 at auctions, and a $3 million home for Walsh’s ex-wife Janet, according to the CFTC.

Greenwood and his wife, Robin, 57, live in a North Salem home on 9.1 acres valued in 2007 at $9.5 million, property records show. Greenwood is the town supervisor in North Salem, where 5,200 people live about 50 miles northeast of New York City.

A third Madoff flower

Probe of Stanford Began at Least 3 Years Ago
SEC Enlisted FBI's Enforcement Tools to Investigate Alleged $9.2 Billion Fraud

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 21, 2009; Page D03

A range of federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, FBI, IRS and banking regulators, have been investigating allegations of fraud and possibly other illegal activity at R. Allen Stanford's companies for at least two years, according to people familiar with the matter.

PA Judges corruption case

US Judges involved in human trafficking (The People's Voice)

On Thursday, 12 February 2009, “judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care.”

“While prosecutors say that Judge Conahan, 56, secured contracts for the two centers to house juvenile offenders, Judge Ciavarella, 58, was the one who carried out the sentencing to keep the centers filled.

“‘In my entire career, I’ve never heard of anything remotely approaching this,’ said Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim, who was appointed by the State Supreme Court this week to determine what should be done with the estimated 5,000 juveniles who have been sentenced by Judge Ciavarella since the scheme started in 2003. Many of them were first-time offenders and some remain in detention.”

These judges sold 5,000 children in five years for $2.6 million. This means that on average they sold approximately three children per day for $520 each for a net profit of $1,560 per day. These are the numbers that have been revealed so far.

Sources Tie Admitted Felons to Pa. Court Scandal (The National Law Journal)

Judge Guilty in Kickbacks Is Accused of Fixing Suit (New York Times)

Amy Goodman: Jailing children for cash (By: Amy Goodman)

From ABC: CEOs, Bankers Used Corporate Credit Cards for Sex

CEOs, Bankers Used Corporate Credit Cards for Sex, Says New York Madam

Wall Street Exposed as Convicted Escort Boss Reveals Client List of 9,800

By ANNA SCHECTER, RHONDA SCHWARTZ and BRIAN ROSS
February 6, 2009

Wall street lawyers, investment bankers, CEOs and media executives often used corporate credit cards to pay for $2,000 an hour prostitutes, according to the madam who ran one of New York's biggest and most expensive escort services until it was busted last year.