Today we introduce a weekly segment, "The Call of Shame", for CNBC's "The Call". It will highlight the lowlights and lowlifes in business and finance.
This week's nominees are:
A-ROID
He told us this week, "Baseball is bigger than Alex Rodriguez," but apparently Alex Rodriguez wanted to get bigger for baseball. His admission of steroid use earlier this decade hurts the business of baseball, unless you're in the business of selling Hank Aaron memorabilia.
MAUI WOWIE
Martin Cooper, a deaf entrepreneur in Hawaii, ran Billion Coupons, Inc. He's now accused of a Ponzi scheme which allegedly ripped off investors in the deaf community. Some of the proceeds are said to have paid for Cooper's home.
GOLDMAN SAD SACHS
Then there are the partners at Goldman Sachs who so overexposed themselves to risky investments they're now having to sell stock to make margin calls. This proves that even some "Masters of the Universe" weren't much smarter about risk than a Stockton housekeeper who bought a McMansion with a liar loan.
THE P-R DOUBLE BOGEY
Investors may have lost $8 billion and the suspected culprit was on the lam for a time, but that didn't stop golfer Vijay Singh from wearing Stanford Financial logos at this week's Northern Trust Open. This decision looks about as well-thought out as his golf game has been lately.
BUT THE WINNER IS...THE SEC!
Once again, it sppears the Securities and Exhange Commission was aware of unusually consistent returns at a firm, but took a long time to act. Like the Madoff investigation, there were red flags raised over Stanford Financial. "I'm really wondering where the SEC has been in the last ten years while this has been going on," says Houston-based attorney Thomas Ajamie.
We wonder, too.
- Is The World's Most Expensive House Back On Market?
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