Matthew Goldstein and Steven Eder
(Hat-tip to Sean at Deep Capture):
“In forwarding Starr’s email to the SEC, former Lehman General Auditor Beth Rudofker wrote: “I phoned you earlier to review and pass on some recent rumor activity and information that is concerning to us.”
In June, Rudofker sent another email to lawyers at the SEC, pointing out additional “rumors” about Lehman that she said “continue to be destructive.” In her long email to the SEC, she said: “We have been able to prevent 3 stories containing these specific rumors that were set to run.”
Also included in the documents is a back-and-forth email exchange between Einhorn and Callan, in which Callan accused him of being “very disingenuous.” Callan said she would not have talked to Einhorn if she knew he was going to make a speech criticizing the firm’s finances.
“I can only feel that you set me up and you will now cherry pick what you like out of the conversation to your thesis,” she wrote in an May 19, 2008 email.
Einhorn defended himself in a lengthy response, saying that Callan knew Greenlight was “short” the stock when she reached out to talk to him.
“You had no reason to expect that our discussion was confidential in any way,” Einhorn wrote in response. “In fact, you knew that I do not want to be restricted in trading the stock and I did not request any information that you would not provide to any other investor who asked.”
A few days later, Einhorn gave another speech blasting the email exchange.
A spokesman for Einhorn declined to comment on Wednesday evening.
For his part, Starr now says, “obviously I was wrong” about Lehman. But he isn’t backing down on his criticism of Einhorn.
“I still stand by those words,” said Starr, who noted that his fund has $50 million under management. “I think that manipulating the market and running a high publicity business is just not appropriate behavior and disruptive to free and open markets.”
My Comment:
Goldstein is the excellent Reuters reporter whose story on Steven Cohen was reportedly spiked…
(more later)