Who would have thought that the man who may be Wall Street’s toughest cop would be the funniest guy at the CNBC and Institutional InvestorDelivering Alpha conference?
Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern district of New York who has led 71 insider trading prosecutions in the past few days, got more laughs during his interview with Jim Cramer than anyone else who has appeared on the stage at the Pierre Hotel.
Cramer started out the interview on a lighthearted note, asking Bharara what percentage of people in the room were wearing a wire. That got a polite chuckle. (Watch the interview here.)
But Bharara brought down the house with his response.
“I was told there would be a lot of people from the hedge fund industry here. I didn’t realize just how many. I apologize in advance that I don’t have subpoenas for all of you,” he said.
The audience appeared genuinely amused.
Although one person sitting beside me pointed out: "These guys had better laugh at his jokes. Or else Preet might show up with a search warrant."
