A Wall Street Affair:
This Bachelor Party
Gets Lots of Attention
Probe Centers on Payments
For Fidelity Star's Bash;
Private Jet
to South Beach
By SUSANNE CRAIG and JOHN HECHINGER
Staff Reporters of
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 18, 2005; Page A1
Even by Wall Street's
over-the-top standards, the March 2003 bachelor party for Thomas Bruderman, a
onetime star trader for Fidelity Investments, was an event to remember.
The festivities began with a trip by private jet from Boston to a small
airport outside New York City. There, the revelers picked up some Wall Street
traders and at least two women who investigators suspect may have been paid for
their attendance, say people familiar with the matter. The partygoers --
including the groom-to-be, who was getting ready to marry the daughter of former
Tyco International Ltd. boss L. Dennis Kozlowski -- then continued to trendy
South Beach in Miami. The fun included a stay at the ritzy Delano Hotel for
some, a yacht cruise and entertainment by at least one dwarf hired for the
occasion.
"Some people are just into lavish dwarf entertainment,"
says the 4-foot-2 Danny Black, a part-owner in Shortdwarf.com, an outfit that
rents dwarfs for parties starting at $149 an hour. Mr. Black says he spent part
of the weekend on the yacht and worked as a waiter on the Friday night at a
high-end Miami eatery alongside what he called "regular size" people. "A good
time was had by all," he said, declining to provide further details.
But
what really made this a memorable party is that it is now a focus of an
investigation into possibly improper gratuities from Wall Street trading firms
eager to get Fidelity's business. The National Association of Securities Dealers
and the Securities and Exchange Commission are examining which Wall Street firms
kicked in money for the weekend party. So far, at least three firms have been
embroiled in the investigation. Jefferies Group Inc. paid for the plane, SG
Cowen & Co. paid for the yacht, and Lazard Capital Markets paid for some of
the hotel rooms, according to people familiar with the matter.
Meanwhile, the party now figures into a broader criminal investigation
by federal prosecutors. The U.S. attorney in Boston has impaneled a grand jury
to determine whether some of the money flowing from brokerage firms to Fidelity
was used to pay for prostitutes and drugs at the party and other events,
according to people familiar with the matter. Among other things, investigators
are trying to determine if Lazard paid for prostitutes at the bachelor party,
the people say.
Spokespeople for Jefferies and Lazard declined to
comment.
Among the guests on the boat: Mr. Bruderman's soon-to-be
father-in-law, Mr. Kozlowski, then facing felony charges that he and a top
lieutenant looted $150 million from Tyco to pay for their extravagant
lifestyles. Mr. Bruderman's wedding to Sandra Kozlowski later that year on
Massachusetts's Nantucket Island was on the eve of Mr. Kozlowski's first trial,
which ended in a mistrial. His second trial ended in a conviction earlier this
year. Scott DeSano, then Fidelity's influential head of stock trading, was an
usher in Mr. Bruderman's wedding and attended part of the bachelor party.
Now investigators have taken sworn testimony from guests at the bachelor
party and are poring over receipts from that celebration. They are investigating
whether favors bestowed on Fidelity traders and others influenced how
Boston-based Fidelity, the nation's largest mutual-fund company, with $1.1
trillion under management, doled out its trading business to Wall Street firms.
Mutual-fund companies are supposed to choose brokers based on service
and price. NASD rules also prohibit brokers from giving or receiving gifts
valued at more than $100. Fidelity has similar internal policies. The rule on
entertainment is fuzzier. The NASD allows "ordinary and usual business
entertainment" so long as it is "neither so frequent nor so extensive as to
raise any question of propriety."
One firm, Jefferies Group, paid for
$75,000 worth of airfare to shuttle Messrs. Bruderman and DeSano and other
non-Fidelity traders to the bachelor party, according to people familiar with
the matter. A person familiar with the matter said SG Cowen, a unit of Société
Générale SA, paid for the yacht party, which ran to almost $10,000.
People familiar with Mr. DeSano's involvement said he did nothing
inappropriate at the party, where he stayed for only a small part of the
weekend. These people say Mr. DeSano has often reimbursed brokers out of his own
pocket for expenses, including the jet trip to Florida. Mr. Bruderman's attorney
declined to comment. Anne Crowley, a Fidelity spokeswoman, said the company
wouldn't comment on an ongoing investigation. But, she says, the firm has
policies that address issues like professional conduct and gifts and gratuities.
"If we find that anyone violates those policies we take steps up to and
including dismissal," she said.
Last December, Fidelity disciplined 14
employees, including Mr. DeSano, related to its internal investigation of gifts
and gratuities. Five, including Mr. Bruderman, have left the firm in connection
with violations of its internal code of ethics. Mr. DeSano, 44 years old, was
fined $50,000 for, among other things, failing to supervise his employees in
connection to the entertainment they accepted. Earlier this month, he was
reassigned to the company's Strategic New Business Development Group as a senior
vice president. Fidelity has declined to say whether the switch was connected to
the investigations.
Fidelity says none of its investing clients have
been harmed by these actions. Fidelity's trading costs are half the industry
average, according to Abel/Noser Corp., a firm that tracks such expenses. Mr.
DeSano, in particular, was known for his aggressive efforts to squeeze brokers
on Wall Street, saving hundreds of millions of dollars for shareholders.
In fact, many traders and their bosses complain that regulators have
been focusing on picayune violations of gift policies, such as doling out
tickets to sporting events or giving away the odd bottle of premium wine -- long
considered standard tokens of appreciation on the Street.
As part of the
gift investigation, SEC investigators have recently questioned Edward C. Johnson
III, Fidelity's chief executive, about tickets he and his wife accepted from a
Wall Street firm to attend a figure-skating competition at the 2002 winter
Olympics. Choice seats for figure-skating events sold for as much as $400. The
company has defended the receipt of the tickets as customary business
entertainment.
The bachelor party is likely to be harder to defend.
Photos of the weekend are circulating on Wall Street, including ones of men and
scantily clad women frolicking on a yacht, according to three people who have
seen them. In one picture, Mr. Kozlowski is standing with a dwarf on the boat,
according to people familiar with the situation. Mr. Black, the dwarf who worked
at the bachelor party, wouldn't say who paid him for his services that weekend,
or how much he was paid. Representatives of Mr. Kozlowski couldn't be reached
for comment.
Regulators have been able to piece together some of what
happened that weekend and on other occasions through interviews with
participants and by reading email and other electronic communications.
In one electronic exchange made over a trading terminal, then-Lazard
trader Robert Ward asked then-Jefferies trader Kevin Quinn how the two of them
planned to "T&E" Mr. Bruderman's wedding -- using Wall Street lingo for
travel and expense. "Creative T&E...again." he responded, according to a
person who has reviewed the exchange. Mr. Ward declined to comment. Gerald
Walpin, a lawyer for Mr. Ward, said his client's actions were "appropriate." He
said his client expensed a handful of hotel rooms to his firm that weekend and
everything that was expensed was fully disclosed to his employer. Mr. Quinn,
through his Boston lawyer Mike Tuteur, declined to comment.
In addition
to the bachelor party, Fidelity traders are under fire from regulators for
accepting other expensive gifts including trips to the Wimbledon tennis
championships, Las Vegas and the Super Bowl in private jets.
In recent
weeks, a number of former Fidelity traders have received so-called Wells notices
from regulators. These are warnings that regulators may file civil charges and
give firms or individuals a chance to defend themselves. Fidelity says the firm
has received no such notice, nor have any current employees.
A large number of sell-side traders, to borrow words from the movie Wall St.,
would not only sell their own mother to make a buck, they'd ship her C.O.D. And
nowhere was this more true than in trying to capture a fraction of the business
that mutual fund giant Fidelity generates. The first thing that
occured to me after reading this was despite how much fun it all sounds like
(from a guy's perspective of course), I couldn't help but notice that Mr.
Bruderman spent his final days as a bachelor largely with people with which
he does business. I have some friends in the business, but they are few and far
between--at least the good ones are. I prefer to keep my work separated from my
home life which is why I would much prefer the bachelor party(ies) I had with
all my close friends in attendance to something of this caliber. After reading
about himself on the front page of the WSJ, I bet Mr. Bruderman feels the same
way.
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