NY Park Ave. Bank CEO Arrested

You can bet a bank CEO is going down when he tries to rip off New York’s upper crust.

When FDIC shuts down a bank they do it at the end of business on a Friday. This is what happened to Park Avenue Bank two Fridays back. Since then the regulatory body has discovered that the bank had phony CDs on record.

Since this is the first time criminal charges have been filed against someone for TARP infractions, the court and Antonucci himself are maneuvering in unchartered waters. The Park Avenue Bank was seized on Friday, March 12, making it one of three banks taken over by bank regulators. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation estimates its loss at $50.7 million for the Park Avenue Bank failure. The special inspector general assigned to oversee TARP says, “The charges today should send a powerful message to those who have tried to steal from the TARP, those who have stolen from the TARP and those who are contemplating similar fraudulent action.”

via Fraud Arrest and Certificates of Deposit.

Dot Com Hubris: Yelp Emulating a Greek Tragedy

First they screwed up getting bought by Google. Then I started hearing first-hand accounts of Yelp sales people extorting money from small-business owners.

Now this:

Yelp has crossed Philip Greenspun, known for his pioneering work publishing long-form Web content and for starting, more than 15 years ago, a large and technically sophisticated community website — the sort of place Yelp could be if the startup spent less time organizing bacchanals and more time refining code.

via Yelp Is Now Disappointing Internet Pioneers – yelp – Gawker.

DID YOU KNOW? Chris Dodd’s Wife is Chair of the CME

So, this is important. The CME is the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. That’s the place where commodities futures are bought and sold. This market determines the prices of crude oil and gold, goods vital to the global economy.

Thank God we have major television news organizations in this country that report on the really important issues.

Well, it turns out that Dodd’s wife has made a business of being on corporate boards, and last year, before the current financial reform legislation was proposed, the Hartford Courant described how she decides which assignments to take:

“She’s turned down board seats that pay more but could entangle her in issues her husband works on. She’s hired an ethics lawyer to screen out corporations that might have business before her husband.”

via Chris Dodd’s wife and derivatives trading | Money & Company | Los Angeles Times.

Saturday Night Special: She’s Got Leg « AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com

I don’t normally repost from AFP, but those kids are too much for me to remain silent. I’m not sure what the nature of their environment is, but my Spidey-Sense is telling me its in the south.

Maybe Texas? I can’t really explain why I think that.

Saturday Night Special: She’s Got Leg « AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com.