The entrepreneurial “pimp” in the Eliot Spitzer case just got sentenced to 2 ½ years for money laundering and prostitution charges. As he lies in that 6 x 9 cell, no doubt he will be thinking of the bad choices he made in the bedroom and in the boardroom.Whatever happened to Eliot, the invincible? He still says what he did was not that bad and the Europeans think it was no big deal. But Eliot, you live here! Being a dishonest schmuck and committing an illegal action is no big deal.
So, to continue his bottom feeding, it was widely reported last summer that he was starting up a new Vulture Fund. Vulture was a new term to me but essentially it is a company with a lot of wealthy investors that decides to buy up companies that it can manage privately, circumventing the rules and regulations of the SEC (which is worthless anyway) and a Fund that does not have to account to anyone—no shareholders and not under anyone’s scrutiny. Speaking of the SEC, the Enforcement Director since 2005 has finally resigned. What does it take…a major collapse of Wall Street?
So, to get back to Vulture Funds, they buy up debts of entities that are near default or bankrupt. The original investor gets pennies on the dollar for the debt and then they go swiftly and relentlessly after the debtor to collect or to sue. They usually make sure that the debtor has some assets of distinction. If there is still "meat on the bones" of the debtor, the Fund goes after him, swooping in like a vulture, and the Fund can make untold fortunes.
If Eliot started his Fund, and I have not read anything that he has, he is going to get the last thrill after all particularly in this economic market. Will he be asking himself,the bedroom or the boardroom?
