Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Dwarf-Tossing????


OK, I am a securities lawyer. Securities law, by definition is, oh I don't know--dull? Sure we get the big scandals but usually it is the net capital rule and the "tick" test (don't ask...) but read on...

From the Washington Post:

A Boston Brahmin's Brawls With Donaldson

By Steven Pearlstein
Wednesday, August 10, 2005; D01

Edward C. Johnson III is the very model of a Boston Brahmin billionaire -- a pillar of Yankee discretion and probity whose wife is active at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities and whose family happens to own Fidelity Investments, the nation's largest mutual fund company.

So one can only imagine Johnson's reaction when it became known recently that the Securities and Exchange Commission, as part of a kickback investigation, was looking into who paid for a bachelor party for a Fidelity trader that reportedly featured paid escorts and "dwarf tossing" -- a party game that apparently involves throwing a dwarf in a Velcro suit at a Velcro-covered wall. Johnson also got caught up in the probe, having benefited from two free tickets to the ice-skating competition at the Salt Lake City Olympics from a brokerage firm with which Fidelity does business.

Dwarf tossing??? Now THAT is a party!!!! Who doesn't think that mutual fund investors should pay for a little game of "pitch a Mini-Me???"

As F. Scott Fitzgerald opined, the rich ARE different!

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