Following my writing on the rumors swirling around Goldman Sachs, John Paulson, and their role in speculative attacks on Greece, the New York Times has written about the rumors, and today reports that Greece’s National Intelligence Service has named several other investors who are shorting Greek debt: Brevan Howard, Fidelity International, and Moore Capital, in addition to Paulson & Co. The Greek daily EYP is also reporting that the agency named PIMCO, as well.
That the names of potential speculators are only identified after the Greek National Intelligence Service begins investigating them points to just how corrupt this system is; the complete lack of transparency in this “free market” forces us to rely on a *government spy agency* for information about who is making these trades. Brevan Howard, Paulson, and Moore were accused by Spain’s intelligence agency last week. How bizarre.
Brevan Howard has since released a letter to investors saying it is not shorting Greek debt, and Fidelity has commented that it only shorts debt for hedging purposes, according to Reuters. Moore Capital, PIMCO, and Paulson have not commented.
The alleged speculators share some fascinating connections, including strong ties to Goldman Sachs and the New York Fed.
Moore Capital, the hedge fund of Louis Moore Bacon, has hired at least three executives straight from Goldman Sachs in the past three months: David Jasper, a macro trader, Garth Appelt, who worked for Jasper, and Amna Karim, former head of Nordic sales for Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Additionally, former Enron and Goldman Sachs executive Aaron Armstrong joined Moore from Deutsche Bank early this year.
Furthermore, two Brevan Howard executives have moved to Moore Capital in recent months. Jean Phillippe Blochet, a co-founder of Brevan and the “B” in its name, joined Moore Capital Brevan last year. Trader Luke Sandrian made the same move late last year.
The firms also have strong ties to the New York Fed. Three of the nine industry representatives on the New York Fed’s Investor Advisory Committee are affiliated with the speculators named by the Greek government: Louis Bacon of Moore Capital, Alan Howard of Brevan Howard, and Mohamed El-Erian of PIMCO. The New York Fed was also a client of PIMCO until recently.
Meanwhile, Greece has named a new debt management head, Petros Christodolou, former head of asset management at the National Bank of Greece, who has worked at Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan. His tenure at Goldman was only two years long, but he was head of the derivatives desk at JP Morgan during the nineties — when the bank was a pioneering player in the derivatives markets.