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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (92869)	10/14/2005 3:35:24 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 122087

Ex-Merrill Trader Gets 42 Months for Stealing $43 Mln (Update1) Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Daniel Gordon, once the top energy trader at Merrill Lynch & Co., was sentenced to 42 months in prison for embezzling $43 million from his former employer, fined $100,000 and ordered to forfeit the money he stole. Gordon, 29, pleaded guilty in 2003 to federal charges that he stole the money by creating a phony energy trade with an offshore company that he'd set up. He also admitted that he helped falsify records at a Merrill energy-trading unit before its sale. Gordon later cooperated with a federal probe of Merrill, which ended without any additional charges. ``It seems to me this was a case of greed and opportunity, and he saw a chance to walk off with the money,'' U.S. District Judge Gerard Lynch said in New York today. ``The actions that brought you here were exactly those of an arrogant would-be master of the universe.'' The Gordon case led to litigation between Merrill, the world's No. 2 securities firm, and Greensburg, Pennsylvania-based Allegheny Energy Inc. Another judge ruled in July that Allegheny wasn't defrauded when it bought the energy-trading unit from Merrill for $490 million in 2001. Allegheny said Merrill wanted to dump the unit, Global Energy Markets, after learning that Gordon, who ran it, had lied about its finances. Gordon, who earned a master's degree in development economics from Yale University in 1997, joined Constellation Energy Group Inc. in Baltimore after college. He went to work for Merrill Lynch in 1999, and by early 2000, was running the newly formed energy-trading unit. At 24, he managed a 20-member trading staff in New York. He later joined Allegheny. Guilty Plea At his December 2003 guilty plea, Gordon said he attended meetings at Merrill where colleagues voiced concern that ``the valuation of the business would be difficult to agree upon,'' in part because the energy trading business was new. ``As a result, a decision was made by my superiors to make the division look more profitable by altering certain of the data that was to be provided to potential suitors,'' Gordon said in the plea. ``I was personally involved in providing a justification for one of those changes.'' Gordon said after he was told to reduce the risk of a transaction that Global Energy was involved in, he created a fictitious entity called Falcon Energy Holdings SA. He said he told co-workers that Falcon would enter into a deal to reduce Global Energy's risk in return for $43 million. The money was wired to an overseas account Gordon set up for himself, he said. Gordon pleaded guilty to single counts of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to falsify records of a public company. `Intelligence Outpaced Judgment' Lynch asked defense attorney Steven Cohen about a comment Gordon made to probation officials before sentencing in which he said he committed the crime out of ``frustration with the petty bureaucrats at Merrill Lynch.'' Gordon told probation officials that Merrill Lynch didn't understand ``he had to do something'' with the money he removed from the energy unit's books. Cohen defended Gordon. ``The Dan Gordon of today is very different from the Dan Gordon of five years ago,'' his lawyer said. ``He was someone whose intelligence outpaced his maturity and judgment.'' Last month, in a related criminal case, authorities in Alberta, Canada, charged Michael Ritter with theft and money- laundering for helping Gordon steal money from Merrill. Gordon hid money in offshore accounts that prosecutors say were set up by Ritter's Newport Pacific Financial Group. As he awaited sentencing last year, Gordon auctioned his five-bedroom Connecticut home for $3 million, about $600,000 less than he paid for it in 2002. The 22-acre estate in Old Lyme had basketball and tennis courts and was Gordon's weekend getaway. New York-based Merrill is a passive, minority investor in Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. The case is U.S. v. Gordon, 03-CR-1494, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. To contact the reporter on this story: David Glovin in U.S. District Court in New York at dglovin@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: October 14, 2005 15:20 EDT

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (92869)	10/15/2005 12:44:57 AM
From: realitybytes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 122087

Jeffery, much like Elgindy, you are trying to pretend the facts do not exist. Elgindy has not addressed what he was doing when he tried to get past Airport security to board an airliner with false identification papers. What you are doing is trying to construct plausible excuses for why he would undertake such actions, however what I am pointing out to you is that your explanations do not hold up to reality. Whether or not Elgindy was trying to flee, I do not know for a fact. It is the most plausible answer, but certainly its not a fact. What I also know is what you are offering as the reasons for his actions are far far less plausible. What you contend are he reasons make no sense whatsoever. You say if he was going to flee he would have just gone across the border. Well actually he while at home he wore an electronic bracelet around his ankle. One which would identify if he was driving the 30 minutes to the border. There is also a good chance that if he had that on at the boarder it would have transponded back to indicate a criminal trying to cross. So skipping off to Mexico from his home was a very risky chance. He would have to fly into Montana to get to Canada with his fake ID. He could do that by flying out of Arizona to Montana. Then driving over. But that is speculation pure and simple. You say he was carrying the Jewelry to sell it in New York, but that is shown to be false because he was still carrying it home. You say he canceled his planned flight which was booked, so he could fly days earlier in order to use a coupon he had bought for a flight. This makes no sense, he would have to cancel the planned flight in order to use the claimed coupon. The cost flight from New York to San Diego is about 200 dollars. You offer no reason at all why such a risk would be worthwhile. There is no reason you offer why 200 dollars would be worth breaking the conditions of his bail bond. You offer no reasons why he would use a false ID at all. None. There is no reason even if you believe he needed to use the coupon to think that he needed to use the false ID. Nothing about the looks of Anthony Elgindy, his name or his appearance screams out Middle Easterner. He looks Hispanic or any other generic American ethnic anything. If you have seen him on 20-20 tape you would understand he has a perfect English and a thick Chicago accent. There is no evidence whatsoever that he would any trouble flying or being treated improperly if he flew under his real name. So we do know that he used a false ID for a specific reason. He is smart guy and does not try to crash the gates of an Airport checkpoint with a false ID for no reason. But we do not specifically know the reason. And we know that Elgindy has not addressed this at all. We know that he has addressed many topics but asking for postings to be made for him. But nothing on this topic. Lets be clear, nothing you or anyone has said explains why Elgindy would use a Fake ID, and any misdirection by talking about travel coupons does not explain it either. If Elgindy had travel coupons, why would he use them with his real name? Why would he skip out on his booked flight? Elgindy was doing something when he tried to gain access to those flights with false ID. What was it? We know some things. He was carrying lots of cash, and lots of jewelry. We know he was not trying to sell the Jewelry in New York. We know that anything related to a travel coupon does not require that you use a fake ID. If I knew for sure what he was doing I would say so. But its easy to dismiss contrived far fetched stories that don’t hold water at all. Jeffery if you knew you would answer why he did it. We know that Elgindy says now thinks it’s a mistake because he was caught. But we don’t know what he was doing, and why, and Elgindy has not offered out why. Jeffery, Elgindy has not told you what he did, so stop contriving explanations of what he did and then pawning them off as “what he would say” Eligindy left early from New York to save the cost of a cheap airplane ticket, because a coupon was expiring and that he felt it to be a great idea to travel on a fraudulent name? He said all that? If he did post it un-edited. But it becomes more and more obvious you have nothing to post of what he said, that you are just making up stories to help you justify you own actions. Let’s hear what Elgindy has to say instead of what you want to think. There is no explanation to why he used a false ID, and you keep ignoring that. Meanwhile that is the crime along with lying, is what he admitted in open court to. Elgindy was doing something very deliberate when he chose to use the fake IDs that day, what was it?