Morning Coffee: 'Motivated' boyfriend stole secrets from banking girlfriend's laptop. Greenhill CEO's incentive for Mizuho sale now amply clear
If you're working from home and your laptop contains references to secret things like upcoming deals, you probably shouldn't leave it unattended while you go out for a bit. But if you were to do that thing, you might think it would be fine with your boyfriend if he were a 'skilled and motivated compliance officer' whose job depended upon his probity.
Unfortunately, Steven Teixera succumbed to temptation. He has since pleaded guilty to insider trading. In its complaint relating to the affair, the SEC details how Teixera, who was a compliance officer at a different firm, went about extracting information from his the laptop belonging to his girlfriend, who was an executive assistant in a top investment bank in New York.
First, he gave her a device that jiggled her mouse when she was away from her desk. This prevented the laptop from being locked down and meant that Teixera didn't have to log to access anything.
Liberated from the need to hang about near her laptop while she worked from home, Teixera's executive assistant (EA) girlfriend then seems to have decided not to work so hard. The SEC says she would 'often' leave the apartment or leave the laptop unattended during the workday.
When she did, she would ask Teixera to check her work emails and to let her know if there was anything that needed her attention. While his girlfriend was out, Teixera was tasked with scanning her inbox. But he wasn't supposed to act upon the confidential information discovered there.
It was only a matter of time before every bank's compliance nightmare came to pass. In late 2020, the SEC says Teixera started searching his girlfriend's inbox specifically for information on valuation and fairness committee meetings relating to mergers and acquisitions of public companies. He then passed this information onto two third parties and told them not to tell his girlfriend.
Teixera received a Rolex and around $30k in illicit profits from his insider trades for his efforts. The third parties, one of whom was a broker who allegedly passed Teixera's information to his clients, are said to have made a combined profit exceeding $5m.
The case looks like a reason not to trust the person you're dating, even if they do work in compliance. Unfortunately, it also looks like a good reason not to allow people to work from home. When Teixera's girlfriend returned to the office, the SEC says he couldn't access her laptop as easily and that his flow of illicit information dried up.
Separately, if anyone at Greenhill was wondering why they were sold to Mizuho, aside from the fact that Greenhill has $270m debt due for repayment next year, the Financial Times has probably found the answer.
Scott Bok, the chairman and chief executive of Greenhill, will collect $78m from Greenhill's $550m sale to Mizuho, says the FT. This will include $43m when the deal closes, another $22m of stock that will vest according to its existing schedule, plus guaranteed bonuses of $4m a year for 2023 and 2024 alongside his $600k salary...
Meanwhile...
Ex-Credit Suisse strategist Zoltan Pozsar, who's just reappeared with his own firm, explains his job. "What I’ve been doing as a strategist for a decade is basically anticipating moments when prices fall apart in funding and rates markets.” (Bloomberg)
Tom Montag's former colleagues say he was a great guy. “He was amazing at running the Asia business”...“one of the most inspirational leaders that I’ve worked with”...."really charismatic and energetic." Now that he's on the Goldman Sachs board, Montag may have big ideas: “I bet you in the back of his mind he thinks he can be CEO of Goldman Sachs...I bet he does.” (Financial Times)
Now Goldman Sachs wants to get out of its partnership with Apple. (WSJ)
Jaewon Yu is leaving Goldman's Hong Kong FX trading desk after 20 years and joining a macro hedge fund. (Bloomberg)
More on the Macquarie men who profited from the Thames Water deal: Martin Stanley, the former head of Macquarie Asset Management, lives in a £2.5m house in Woodbridge, Suffolk, complete with a swimming pool; Edward Beckley, 48, the former head of Macquarie Infrastructure Europe, lives in a £2.6m farmhouse with a tennis court in Bishop’s Stortford, Essex. (The Times)
Credit Suisse has got some new heads of the investment bank Michael Furber, currently head of capital markets for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Jonathan Grundy, co-head of its UK investment bank, will lead it in EMEA. David Kostel and Marc Warm will become co-heads of transition for the Americas; Kuan-Ern Tan and Christian Deiss will lead the investment bank in Asia-Pacific. (Financial News)
Michael Ilgner, Deutsche Bank's head of HR, has left. Ilgner was the target of an internal compliance probe after buying €201k worth of Deutsche bonds just over a week before DB released its first-quarter results. (Financial Times)
Ex-Credit Suisse CEO Thomas Gottstein is being investigated for his links to the implosion of $10bn of funds linked to Greensill. (Bloomberg)
“You’re basically underground for the whole time [in Canary Wharf]...“It’s far from where I live and basically it’s a soulless, horrible place with no character — that’s why I hate it.” (Financial Times)
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