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If you're a vulture investor and you're profiting from the current market turmoil, it's only expected that you'll generate a bit of negative press. When you make your big bets in England, though, you get to see yourself described as a "greedy pig" in the headline. The Mirror reports today that New York's very own Phil Falcone—the hockey-loving billionaire mogul who purchased the Guccione mansion last year for $49 million, has a giant stake in the New York Times, is the proud owner of a pet pig named Pickles, and is married to the plastic surgery-lovin' Lisa Falcone—may have earned "hundreds of millions" by betting that the price of Britain's HBOS would fall.

After HBOS' stock plunged, another Lloyd's TSB stepped in yesterday and cemented a deal to acquire the struggling company. Just how much of a profit Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners will walk away with as part of the buyout isn't entirely clear and Falcone refused to comment, but it could be an enormous sum. "If Harbinger had played the market ruthlessly, borrowing and selling early then buying back when shares reached today's low point of 88p, it could have made up to half a billion pounds." And you thought everyone in finance was depressed today! [Mirror]