Trading Inside Information Was ‘Like an Orgasm’ for Danielle Chiesi

People who engage in insider trading are usually motivated by greed and power. Danielle Chiesi was motivated by sexual gratification, according to a story in Fortune this month about the analyst who was arrested as part of a sting against the Galleon Group last fall and her affair with Bob Moffat, the executive at IBM she allegedly bilked for info. The story, which reads more like a hilarious bodice-ripper than a piece of financial journalism, reports that Chiesi didn't earn that much by Wall Street standards on her trades — less than $1 million most years and $2 million in her best year — but money wasn't what she was after. According to the people who knew her and/or their imaginations, when it came to information, she was insatiable.
Poor Bob Moffat was merely a victim of her voracious appetites, according to the magazine.

Moffat was a number cruncher of the first order: He had been, among other things, the head of IBM's supply chain. Spreadsheets sang to him; he carried three-ring binders stuffed with data about the business. Some people might think his work was dull. But in 2002 he met a hedge fund analyst who found what he did insanely alluring. Danielle Chiesi, a former teenage beauty queen, was a woman for whom business information was the ticket to gratification. She liked older men, and she enjoyed pushing their buttons. "I love the three S's," she would tell them. "Sex, stocks, and sports."

And spreadsheets, apparently. Chiesi and Bob began an affair in 2003, but their lovemaking meant something different to him than it did to her. "Everyone wants to make this about sex," Bob explained.

"Danielle had an extensive network of business people. And she added clarity about what was going on in the business world ... I know in my heart what this relationship was about: clarity in the business environment."

Okay. Fortune attempts to explain.

Sex was part of the picture, to be sure, but the dangerous elixir that really bound these people to one another was information. It enriched some of them, it thrilled all of them, and it eventually ruined their careers.

Except for Chiesi. For Chiesi, it was about sex.

Trading business information, Chiesi would say, was "like an orgasm."

Dangerous liaisons at IBM: Inside the biggest hedge fund insider-trading ring [Fortune]
Earlier: Analyst Who Fed Raj Rajaratnam Inside Information Was a Total Cougar


 

Elian Gonzalez, former child castaway, not angry at Florida relatives over U.S.- Cuba custody battle

No hard feelings.

The poster boy for an international custody battle between Cuba and the U.S. is speaking out for the first time in years. And he has one message.

Elian Gonzalez is not angry at the Miami relatives who struggled to keep him in the country 10 years ago.

“Even though they didn't help me in every way possible, they didn't help me move forward, they are still my family,” Elian, now 16, said.

The comments came after President Raul Castro attended a celebration on Wednesday commemorating the 10th anniversary of the former castaway’s return to Cuba.

“I don't have anger for them,” said the shy teenager of his Miami relatives. “It’s only that it wasn’t the best effort possible, and thanks to a large part of the American public, and our public, today I'm with my father and I feel happy here.”

But Elian’s father, John Miguel, blasted his own family.

Miguel said he was still furious with his relatives because “they let themselves get carried away with other things.”

He added that his son belonged in Cuba. “Today I'm more sure than I was then,” Miguel said.












Elian survived a November 1999 shipwreck that killed his mother and other Cubans who were seeking to defect to the U.S. Elian, just 5 years old at the time, was found floating off Florida’s coast in an inner tube.

U.S. immigration officials ruled the boy should return to Cuba over the objections of his Florida relatives and other Cuban exiles.

The boy's family in Miami refused to give him up. But he was eventually returned to his father in Cardenas, Cuba, after being snatched at gunpoint by U.S. agents.

Elian, dressed in a red-striped shirt, sat in the front row of the event next to Castro. The country's leader embraced the teenager and patted him on the back.

“It's the land where I'm from,” Elian said of Cuba. “Here I feel good, and thanks to my education and the strength my people have given me, today I'm almost a man.”

Local news agencies reported that Elian likes music, partying (though he’s not a good dancer), spending time on his computer and weightlifting with friends.

Winter Sonata Heroes Suicide

SEOUL, South Korea – A popular South Korean actor and singer was found dead Wednesday in an apparent suicide that would be the latest in a recent string of high-profile suicides in the Asian country, police and a news report said.

Park Yong-ha, 33, apparently hanged himself in his home in Seoul, Yonhap news agency reported, citing police.

An official with Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency told The Associated Press that Park was found hanging by the electric cord of his mobile phone battery charger. However, police were still trying to determine the exact cause of death, the official said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

Park debuted in the late 1990s and starred in the 2002 television drama "Winter Sonata," which drummed up a following in Japan and Southeast Asia. He held several concerts in Japan and one of his fans was said to be its former first lady Akie Abe.

Yonhap reported no suicide note was found, but the Seoul police agency said Park told his family "I'm sorry. I'm sorry" while massaging his father, who is terminally ill with stomach cancer, early Wednesday.

Gulf Coast oil spill cleanup effort could be hampered as Tropical Storm Alex forms in Caribbean

Saturday, June 26th 2010, 9:22 AM
A ship sails through oil on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico near the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
GREENPEACE
A ship sails through oil on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico near the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Related News

Let the anxiety begin.

The oil-drenched Gulf Coast must face a new foe: the weather.

Tropical Storm Alex formed in the western Caribbean Saturday, raising fears that it could become a hurricane as the region continues to fight the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf.

Forecasters believe Alex is aimed at Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, but remain wary the storm could change direction at any time.

With anywhere between 69 million and 132 million gallons of oil floating in the Gulf, and dozens of ships at sea fighting the spill, a major storm could be devastating.

The Deepwater Horizon rig explosion April 20 killed 11 workers and triggered the worst oil spill disaster in U.S. history.

As scientists told NYDailyNews.com earlier this month when the Atlantic hurricane season started, this is an unprecedented situation. "This is going to be the prototype case," Dr. Joseph Suhayda of Louisiana State University, said.

This year's forecast calls for seven major storms, a number similar to 2005 when Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans.

Should Alex, or another big storm threaten the Gulf Coast, BP's cleanup effort could be halted for at least two weeks as it removes ships and equipment to safety, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen told the Associated Press.

BP said Friday it has spent $2.35 billion in its effort to clean and contain the spill.

As residents and oil spill workers brace for the storm season, BP had some encouraging news.

The oil giant said its effort to drill a relief well is on track.

"We are where we thought we were," a BP spokesman said.

The relief well is believed to be the only way to completely stop the underwater leak.

With News Wire Services

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/06

Accepting Lady chance during your position costs one thing. Experiencing Lady Gaga would seem to be is quite another.

The flamboyant performer amazed Friday's New York Mets-Yankees game at Yankee Stadium. She was glad in an open-collared pinstripe jersey and black bikini bottom. For her, that has to be cosidered dressinf conservatively.



She managed to enter the sanctuary from the Yankees clubhouse after a 4-0 loss and is reported to have chatted with Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez. The New York base said she seemed to be drunk.

The paper also said Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner had banned her from the clubhouse. The team Sunday denied any such action.

''If you listen to the stations, she's all over the place,'' Cano said. ''She's a great singer and she's doing pretty good. She's a great singer, I can tell you that.''

''Our guys know that when it's time to play, it's time to play,'' Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. ''Celebrities have been coming out to different venues forever, whether you turn on a Lakers game or celebrities used to flock to watch Michael Jordan play. Our clubhouse, from an hour before the game, is our little sanctuary.''

So Lady Gaga may coming back someday. Not after a loss, however.

''There is a time for things like that and that wasn't it,'' Yanks general manager Brian Cashman said. ''After a loss is the wrong time. Where a security detail prevents the media covering the game from doing its job, that is wrong. This has nothing to do with her. ... It has to do with a decision made upstairs to let her in and allow this to happen. She did nothing wrong. ... The problem is internal and it's been handled.''

Guess that means Lady Gaga isn't too hot to handle, after all.

Summer Solstice: Stonehenge Welcomes the First Day of Summer Source

The summertime Solstice is the the daytime about the most farseeing time period from daylight of the twelvemonth, also called the beginning day of summer in a lot of acculturations. In this day citizenry complete the Earth celebrate the ability of the Sun and the arrival of summer, because ancient times.

A countless of events take place all over the planet, like the Summer Solstice Parade in the U.S., that has the motto (Freedom to The Peculiar) or the huge gathering at the mystical Stonehenge monument in England.

This year more than 20,000 people, New Agers, neo-pagans, locals and tourists witnessed the sunrise on the Salisbury Plain, the location of the famous stone circle, after a celebration that lasted all night. As the Sun began rising, the event comprised marked by the blowing of a huge horn, and citizenry started acting as all kind of instruments, including drums and tambourines. The consequence will conclusion with bonfires, reminding the participants of the pre-Christian beginnings of this day.