New York broker Sky Capital, headed by Ross Mandell -- an admitted former Wall Street bad boy -- received a visit from the FBI on Monday, where they raided the firm and confiscated boxes of records. According to a Dow Jones Newswires article appearing in the New York Sun this morning, it's not completely clear what the FBI was after:
FBI special agents executed a search warrant at Sky and left with boxes of documents, according to a person familiar with the matter. The probe appears related to shares offerings to foreign investors. A spokeswoman for the District Court for the Southern District of New York declined to comment, citing a policy of not discussing the possibility of an investigation. Sky Capital LLC is a subsidiary of Sky Capital Holdings Ltd., which is also the parent company of Sky Capital UK Ltd., a British firm.
But founder Ross Mandell is a guy with an interesting past from what we can tell after we did a bit of poking around. All of the excesses of the 80's and 90's. Sex. Drugs. Alcohol. And run-ins with the NASD. He was interviewed by Pranay Gupte in 2005 in an article that appeared in the New York Sun where Mandell talked about all of his excesses and how he became a changed man:
Ross Mandell, founder and CEO of Sky Capital Holdings, fervently believes in redemption, rehabilitation and renewal.
"I was one of the bad boys of Wall Street," he said over lunch. "I was an alcoholic. I lived hard and played hard. I used drugs. I treated my friends, business associates and clients quite badly."
He wasn't the only person to lead a hard-charging life in the financial-services industry in the 1980s and 1990s, of course; indiscriminate sex, alcohol, cocaine, were all staples of a new breed of supremely self-confident traders, overwhelmingly men whom Tom Wolfe later memorably called "masters of the universe" in his best-selling novel, "Bonfire of the Vanities." But Mr. Mandell invited a great deal of notoriety, even in an environment of excesses.
He was, in his own words, "out of control." In those years, the Long Island-born graduate of the University of Maryland worked at Oppenheimer & Co., Prudential-Bache Securities, D. Blech & Co., and Steve Andrew & Co. - the latter two have long been defunct - and had several runs-in with the National Association of Securities Dealers. He was suspended for six weeks in 1995, and wound up paying tens of thousands of dollars in arbitration settlements and awards.
"I never declared bankruptcy," Mr. Mandell told The New York Sun. "I was in debt for a million dollars. But I paid everyone back. I remedied every situation that I had foolishly created."
He also checked himself into the Silver Hill rehab center in New Canaan, Conn. After four weeks, he emerged a new man, Mr. Mandell said.
"I decided to fundamentally change my life at that point," he said....
FBI Raids New York Brokerage Sky Capital - Dow Jones Newswires via New York Sun
Lunch at the Tribeca Grill with: Ross Mandell - Pranay Gupte
The excesses of the past. Ah, the good old days
Posted by: Algernon | November 08, 2006 at 11:57 AM
Great research find. I love back story stuff like this.
Posted by: John R | November 08, 2006 at 12:12 PM
Dealbreaker blogged on the NY Sun article this today as well. But they missed the best part!
Posted by: Sam L | November 08, 2006 at 12:13 PM