Well...I thought it was funny...
nypostonline.com
FEDS: WALL ST. EXEC A PORN LOSER
By AL GUART
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In a case that could rock Wall Street -- and give a new meaning to "insider trading" -- the one-time head of an investment bank was busted yesterday for passing financial secrets to his porn-queen lover.
James McDermott Jr., 48, former chairman and CEO of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, was charged with securities fraud for allegedly tipping off popular porn siren Marylin Star to inside information on bank mergers.
McDermott, who is married, had an "intimate relationship" with Star when he spilled information that helped her make $88,000, the feds say.
McDermott declined to comment after his arraignment in Manhattan federal court yesterday. His lawyer, Denis McInerney, said McDermott was "shocked" by the charges.
Star, whose real name is Kathryn Gannon, also passed McDermott's information along to another lover, the complaint and law-enforcement sources said.
The busty 30-year-old blonde, who lived in Miami and ran an X-rated Web site -- has appeared in hundreds of porn flicks with such titles as "Sins of the Flesh" and "Cirque Du Sex."
From at least 1996 until this month, "Gannon had an intimate relationship with" McDermott, the feds charged. The affair proved profitable for Gannon, who allegedly made $88,000 between June 1997 and December 1997 based on tips McDermott supplied.
Last May, as Keefe, Bruyette & Woods was about to make a public stock offering, McDermott revealed he had "recommended" certain bank stocks to "a friend" under investigation by the SEC.
The embarrassing disclosure led KBW to pull the offering, which was expected to raise $85 million, including $16 million for McDermott.
The next month, McDermott was forced to resign from KBW, where he worked for 20 years.
The feds say Gannon shared McDermott's tips with another lover, Anthony Pomponio, a New Jersey man who also was charged in the case.
McDermott was released on $1 million bond. Pomponio was released on $50,000 bond.
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