Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

The Taint Spreads to SAC | The growing insider trading scandal involving hedge funds has made its way to the offices of SAC Capital, the firm founded by one of the industry's most powerful figures, Zamboni-loving billionaire Steve Cohen. One of the 14 new defendants charged today, Richard Choo Beng Lee, seems to have started his crime spree when he was employed by SAC. [BI, Reuters]

Signs of a Comeback | Things appear to be looking up for the art market. After five months of consecutive falls, prices are finally beginning to rise again as buyers become more confident and auction houses get a bit more realistic about prices. The renewed confidence appears to be having a positive effect on the auction houses themselves: Shares of Sotheby's have nearly tripled over the last five months. And galleries seem to be more bullish, too. Earlier this week, it was reported that Larry Gagosian is planning to add to his chain of eight galleries with a location in Athens. But not every segment of the market is bouncing back. Experts say that areas that became over-inflated in recent years due to "speculative bidding" are still losing value. Steve Cohen isn't out of the woods just yet, in other words. [Wealth Bulletin]

Happy Birthday | Your favorite art-collecting, Greenwich-living, publicity-shunning hedge fund billionaire, Steve Cohen (left), turns 53 today. New York's  most famous drag queen, Lady Bunny (right), is turning 47. Marcia Gay Harden is 50. Photographer Terry Richardson is turning 44. Halle Berry turns 43. Steve Martin is 64. Oscar-winning composer James Horner is turning 56. Tony-winning playwright Thomas Meehan turns 80. Magic Johnson is 50. Actress Mila Kunis is 26. Susan Saint James, the actress and wife of NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol, is turning 63. Musician David Crosby is 68. E! host and Top Model regular Jay Manuel is turning 37. And romance novelist Danielle Steel is celebrating her 62nd birthday today. Weekend birthdays are below.More

Another Hedge Fund Goes Down | Maybe he should have stuck with hockey. Tim Barakett, the founder of Atticus Capital and possibly the only hedge funder in history to turn down an opportunity to play professional hockey to go Harvard Business School, announced today that he's shutting down his flagship fund and handing $3 billion back to his investors. "After 15 years of being singularly focused on building and managing Atticus, I believe it is time to reassess my future," Barakett said in a letter to investors. On a more positive note, you can rest assured Steve Cohen's hockey rink will see a lot more action over the coming months. [WSJ]

You may still be dealing with the nasty effects of the economic downturn, but the pain and misery appears to be over for the hedge funders who were forced to momentarily put off plans to buy a new jet or private Caribbean island earlier this year. The Post reports the first six months of 2009 were very good for the likes of Steve Cohen, Paul Tudor Jones, Phil Falcone, and John Paulson as "hedge funds overall turned in their best performance in a decade, with funds up 12 percent through the end of June." Before you immediately brush this off as just another example of the rich getting richer while the less fortunate continue to struggle, consider four reasons why it's actually great news that Phil Falcone may end the year with a net worth north of $3 billion:More

• Richard Bressler, a managing director at the private equity shop Thomas H. Lee Partners and the former CFO of Viacom, has gone into contract to sell his duplex at 850 Park. The five-bedroom apartment, which Bressler purchased for $9.75 million in 2005, had been on the market since March and had been priced most recently at $13.5 million. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Mortgage company founder Steven Schnall and his wife Sherri have dropped the price of their massive townhouse at 2 North Moore Street less than three months after putting it back on the market for $33 million. The 11,000-square-foot mansion is now listed with Deborah Grubman for the bargain price of $29 million. Get it while it's hot! [Cityfile, Corcoran] More

Based on the VIP preview yesterday and the early round of sales today, it looks like Art Basel is not, repeat not, going to tank thanks to the craphole global economy. The Art Newspaper reports that spirits are high, big-name buyers such as Steve Schwarzman, Wilbur Ross, and Eli Broad are all on hand and ready to buy, and the art is the best it's been all year. "I'm not saying the bull market is back," says Sandy Heller, the art adviser who caters to art-collecting tycoons like hedge funder Steve Cohen. "But I'm saying the art market needed a good fair and this is it." Heck, Brad Pitt dropped a mil on a Neo Rauch painting yesterday.More

The real estate market in hedge fund-heavy Greenwich continues to disappoint: Sales were down nearly 70 percent during the first quarter of 2009 compared with the same time period a year earlier, and the average sale price plummeted 23 percent. The good news? Greenwich-based hedge funds like Steve Cohen's SAC Capital and Paul Tudor Jones's Tudor Investment Corporation scored big gains last month as May "turned into one of the best performing months in history." Does that mean that some newly optimistic financial titan will find the cojones to pay $75 million for Leona Helmsley's former estate, which has been languishing on the market for months now? Let's hope so. It sure would be a pity if the 75-foot outdoor pool and industrial ice cream machine didn't get any use this summer. [Greenwich Time, NYT/Dealbook]

The Robin Hood Foundation's spring fundraiser took place last night at the Jacob Javitz Convention Center and some 3,200 people turned up to munch on grilled shrimp and chicken Milanese, mingle with the likes of Oprah and Anne Hathaway, and open their wallets and give to the non-profit that funnels millions of dollars a year to worthy causes across the city. The mood was a bit subdued this year, which isn't surprising considering Robin Hood remains the charity of choice for a big bunch of Wall Street chiefs and hedge fund titans like Dan Och, Steve Cohen, and Paul Tudor Jones. To reflect the mood, the lavish auction items that were a staple in previous years weren't part of the program this time around. But emcee Jon Stewart managed to keep the crowd laughing with Bernie Madoff jokes, and George Soros gave the evening a big boost by making a $50 million pledge. (The organization collected a total of $72 million last night, up from $56 million last spring.) Coverage of the event can be found here, here, and here. For a slightly more informal take on the evening, a brief dispatch from the wife of a hedge fund manager is below.More

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Time magazine celebrated the release of its "100 most influential" list last night, a gathering that attracted plenty of rich finance-y types a year ago, back when saying you worked at a hedge fund or investment bank didn't have the reputational value of saying you spent your day repossessing cars or running a funeral home. The financial meltdown translated into a slightly different guest list and seating plan this time around, not surprisingly. Hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen, who graciously stood on the red carpet last year and even permitted a photographer to take his picture (not that he smiled or anything), wasn't even invited. And while billionaire financier Steve Schwarzman did make the invite list—and turned out for the ceremony—he probably should have just stayed at home.

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Art Prices Take a Plunge | Art just isn't what it used to be. According to the Mei Moses index released today, art prices fell 35 percent during the first quarter of 2009, which means Steve Cohen's ten-figure collection is now worth a much more modest $650 million. [FT]

Cohen Collection Revealed | Part of hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen's art collection went on display today at Sotheby's. Paintings and sculptures by Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso, Jeff Koons, and Richard Prince—works that normally reside at Cohen's castle in Greenwich—are all there to be ogled, although don't ogle them too closely if you don't want to come face to face with a burly security guard (see left). Dealbreaker got a sneak peek yesterday and brought a camera along. So if you don't plan to make it in person—it runs through April 14—or you just want to see what $450 million in art in one room looks like, well, off you go. [Dealbreaker]

The Biggest Losers | You heard about the 25 men—and they are always men—who were ranked the top-earning hedge fund managers of the year, walking away with a collective $11.6 billion during 2008. What about the biggest losers? Alpha magazine will publish that list tomorrow, but Dealbreaker has the deets on the top three people on the list: In first place is Ken Griffin, who watched $2 billion vanish, while Eddie Lampert came in second, having witnessed $1 billion evaporate into thin air. Right behind him is Steve Cohen, who was mercifully spared a 10-digit loss but still ended up down $750 million on the year. That doesn't account for the unrealized losses related to Cohen's massive art collection, naturally, but you can't really expect Alpha to tackle that. We're counting on you, Artforum! [Dealbreaker]

• Tim Geithner has unveiled his latest plan to deal with the financial crisis. This one involves a partnership between the government and private investors, and could eventually involve buying up to $1 trillion in toxic assets from banks, although it isn't generating unanimous support. "It fills me with a sense of despair," says the Times's Paul Krugman. [WSJ, NYT, BN, NYT]
• New documents over the weekend indicate AIG paid out $218 million in bonuses, more than the previously disclosed $165 million. [Reuters]
• Here's another way to look at the AIG mess: If those bonuses hadn't been paid, the U.S. government may have had $1.7 trillion to worry about. [NYP]
• That trip to AIG on Saturday? Lots of reporters, many fewer protesters. [AP]
• Obama reiterated his support for Geithner on 60 Minutes. [Dealbreaker]More

Those interested in pissing off their neighbors could learn a thing or two from Russian mogul Valery Kogan and his wife Olga. The two purchased a 20,000-square-foot Greenwich mansion back in 2005, then infuriated neighbors by announcing plans in May 2008 to tear it down and build a new 27,000-square-foot palace—replete with 26 toilets—in its place. That plan was rejected by the Greenwich planning commission, which led the Kogans to propose a somewhat more modest plan, which called for a mere 21,000-square-feet of living space and 15 bathrooms. More