Your Thursday Morning A.J. Update
Since we posted our initial story on A.J., and moreso after we linked to the now deleted MySpace profile, we have received an overwhelming response from readers who wanted to tell us more about him.
Before we dig into the mailbag, we should tell you that we aim to humiliate, not destroy lives. Or at least that is the guest editor's philosophy. He is but a boy playing dress up among grownups, and as one reader tells us, "not nearly the worst this profession has to offer". Shit, he's not even the worst Code.tv has to offer. After all, how can we hate a guy who reinforces Dove's message by showing us that even beautiful people need help looking beautiful.
Caption: "Kauai, HI — Pre Air-Brush (Polo Sport)
Our first email, after the jump, comes from A.J.'s "friends and supporters".
Hi,
This is a request to remove comments referencing to AJ on your page. The main story can stay, but the cached link must be removed. The account has been deleted because of Gawker's exploitation of an innocent man. If this is not removed, we will look to further available options to pursue removal. This is to benefit the companies listed on the page, and if the true identity of this man is revealed-it will spell trouble. Please understand this request and accept our gratitude in advance.
Regards,
Friends and supporters of AJ
Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless
I was shocked to see A.J.'s picture on your website. It has been a while since I saw that bumbling has-been. I went to college with A.J. at Fordham University at Rose Hill (in the Bronx), and knew A.J. well. That is, until we got to know well of who A.J. really is. The kid has been a liar and struggling to climb the social ladder since infancy (I imagine he tried to pass off his nickel version of a classic Tiffany's rattle then too). The boy started out selling knives, probably door-to-door, before he ever became a so-called "investment banker." However, maybe panhandling around NYC and buying fancy threads at Salvation Army to get into washed out clubs qualifies you as an "investor." I hate when these simpletons get praised and the fifteen-minutes they're dying for by you guys. You should know the truth....and there's plenty more.
A.J. has obviously cleaned up his MySpace profile like a second-degree murderer at a crime scene. I was able to discern that he is not an I-banker, but rather a retail broker. As an NYUer in the financial services industry, I can tell you that both professions are kind of smarmy, but brokers are definitely smarmier and not as intelligent. Whatever he's making, if it's over 75k, I would be surprised and upset. I'm guessing he's maxing out his credit cards to pay for the bottle service and escorts in the video. As others have mentioned, the work and education history are a complete mystery. This guy is gross, but unfortunately, he's not nearly the worst this profession has to offer.
Your boy works at my company, [redacted], but he, lest you think he has an ounce of actual talent, works in the back-office Structured Products Group (a glorified handjob factory for banker rejects). His real name is [redacted]; please feel free to look at his Facebook profile which is ripe with photos of sleeping girls (models, perhaps?) and other creepiness. Please believe that not all of us who work as bankers are ridiculous enough to think that a leased Boxster and some hired help is what constitutes as being the "real deal".
He still lives at home in Westchester with his parents, not the city. He's not an analyst but a controller at one of [redacted]'s buildings downtown, ergo " he most def CANNOT afford those bottles or even cheap models," according to my friend who works there. I've become a woman obsessed. He went to high school with us.
Just spoke with my friend at [redacted]—he says they just discovered this kid "AJ" works there, but begged me not to mention [redacted] in the same sentence as this kid. Apparently he isn't even an I-Banker, as his initial video claims; instead, he works in the Financial Control group making much less than the "250K+" he lists as his salary on his myspace page. The internet sure is making it tough on all the liars out there...