Wall Street Folly

It's Official: We've moved! Our new home is www.wallstreetfolly.com

Please join us over at our new Wall Street Folly site.  We're still working out some kinks, but it's up and running! (Note, if for some reason you're not directed to that site, keep trying.  It gonna take a bit for the redirection of our wallstreetfolly.com url to be propogated through the system.)

John Devaney raised the asking price of his Aspen spread to $23.5 million

United Capital Markets head John Devaney, in recovery from the well publicized collapse of several of his hedge funds during the mortgage market meltdown, has upped the asking price for his 17 bedroom Aspen home.  According to the WSJ:

John Devaney responds to the NY Post story that he was booed off the stage at a bond conference

Here's the statement that John Devaney published via PRNewswire.  No , he wasn't booed off the stage, he says.  The account was "totally fabricated".

Imploded hedge fund head John Devaney dissed at asset backed conference

Ouch: John Devaney, the former billionaire baller and skipper of the imploded and liquidated Horizon Funds  (and yacht "Positive Carry") didn't get such a great reception last Monday when he spoke at an annual conference for asset backed securities held in Miami.  According to the NY Post, he was booed on stage during a "rant on why the markets were wrong and he was right".  Later that evening he held an invitation only party on his mom's yacht (since his "Positive Carry" had been sold)...

John Devaney liquidates his Horizon funds and investors get zero, zip, zilch, nada?

Billion Dollar Wall Street Baller no more?: John Devaney, the flamboyant hedge fund manager and head of United Capital Markets Holdings who made massive wrong way sub-prime bets, was forced to liquidate his Horizon funds.  And unfortunately, investors will be getting bupkus.   Yep.  A total zero.

Early this year, Devaney spoke at a conference where he said that it was time to start moving back into the sub-prime market.  To keep his sinking empire afloat, he had been selling assets -- including his prized yacht "Positive Carry",  helicopters, a plane and a Renoir.

According to Bloomberg:

The Horizon group of funds run by Devaney's United Capital Markets Holdings Inc. couldn't meet a margin call from Deutsche Bank AG at the end of June, according to a letter to clients today obtained by Bloomberg News. Deutsche Bank then seized and auctioned off the collateral.

 

John Devaney: It's time to sink more money into sub-prime

John Devaney, skipper of United Capital Markets Holdings Inc., and former skipper of "Positive Carry", one of the two yachts he was forced to sell last year after he was nearly sunk by bad sub-prime bets, thinks it's time to test the waters again.

The chief executive officer of United Capital Markets Holdings Inc., who lost more than 35 percent for at least one client last year and prevented investors from withdrawing their cash, says bonds derived from subprime mortgages are a bargain after falling as low as 10 cents on the dollar. TCW Group Inc. and Pacific Investment Management Co. are also betting that prices will recover.

``Just because I lost money doesn't mean I will quit, no way,'' Devaney, who sold his boat ``Positive Carry'' and Gulfstream IV, said in a telephone interview from Key Biscayne, Florida. ``Prices have collapsed and this is the best opportunity I've seen in my career.''

More problems for John Devaney as two traders and an analyst defect to Seaport

John Devaney's troubled United Capital Markets lost three traders to distressed debt shop Seaport Group according to Bloomberg:

Seaport's hires are Sean Kirk, a trader and member of the United Capital Markets senior management team; Evan Kestenberg, a trader of collateralized debt obligations; and analyst Jeffrey Humphrey, Kirk said in an interview today.

Seaport, a New York-based securities firm with a trading focus on bonds of distressed or restructured companies, began trading structured debt with the new staff, Kirk said. Much of that market is now ``distressed'' because of the fallout from a jump in defaults on subprime mortgages, Kirk said.

`We intend to be a liquidity provider in the distressed ABS space as a broker dealer, as we've always been,'' he said.

Seaport Hires Two Traders From Devaney's United Capital Markets - Bloomberg

United Capital's Devaney puts his helicopter up for sale

John Devaney is selling another one of his toys according to the New York Post:

John Devaney, founder and general partner of United Capital Asset Management, saw his remarkable reversal of fortune enter a new phase this week when his United Aviation Holdings subsidiary listed an ultra-luxe Sikorsky S76C helicopter for sale.

A brochure that featured the listing prices the chopper at $10.995 million, and cites the reason for the sale as "changing corporate travel requirements."

Devaney's UAM hedge funds have lost at least 35 percent of their value through June and likely have dropped even more in July as they struggle with the collapse of the asset-backed bond market.

Even worse, Devaney had what was once $100 million of his family's fortune in the now rapidly shrinking fund.

He's Grounded - New York Post

Did you catch VH-1's "The Fabulous Life of Billion Dollar Wall Street Ballers"?

If you didn't catch the show on Thursday evening, you really should catch one of the upcoming reruns.  It was a fun watch.  Some pictures from the show are below; we'll have lots more later....

How do ridiculously wealthy Wall Street BSDs spend their cash? Find out on VH-1's 'The Fabulous Life: Billion Dollar Wall Street Ballers'

What do billionaire Wall Street BSDs blow their ill-gotten gains on?   VH-1 aims to tell you, if you don't already know.  Over the weekend we saw a promo for an upcoming VH-1 show: "The Fabulous Life: Billion Dollar Wall Street Ballers".  It'll air on Thursday at 11am EDT and again that night at 9PM EDT with additional reruns on the VH-1 schedule.  According to VH-1's teaser/promo, the show features ESL / Sears' Eddie Lampert, and naturally SAC Capital's Steve Cohen. It also mentions the millions raised by the Robin Hood Foundation, so we'd guess that Paul Tudor Jones is probably in there too.  Surprisingly also featured are accused perv / billionaire Jeffrey Epstein as well as besieged-by-subprime-debt John Devaney (Maybe parting with his "Positive Carry" yacht might not be such a big deal after all --- VH-1 says he has 10!).

Think stars are having all of the fun? Think again. These days nobody's making more and spending more than the buttoned-down badasses of Wall Street. From their sprawling estates and tricked-out private yachts to exotic vacation homes and multi-million dollar art collections-- these guys are living larger than anyone else on the planet. Welcome to The Fabulous Life of Billion Dollar Wall Street Ballers.