A sports story that could be of interest to even the non-athletically inclined: Is this superstar lady runner really a fella? And why does a "gender test" take "several weeks" to complete? What are they looking for down there??
Computer hackers and the perpetrators of securities fraud are having quite a moment, aren't they? This week, the man behind the largest computer hacking case in U.S. history, Albert Gonzalez, was taken into custody and he now finds himself in a (computer-less) jail cell in Brooklyn facing charges he made off with 135 million credit and debit card numbers. And we certainly don't have to tell you that 2009 as been a banner year for fraudsters armed with all any number of financial schemes designed to line their pockets and empty your own. But can you tell the difference between a computer hacker and fraudster just by looking at them? And could you differentiate a rogue techie and evil financial genius from a garden variety pedophile? It's harder than it looks! Below you'll find a sampling of mugshots of men who have been arrested for one of the three crimes. It's up to you to tell them apart. Good luck!
After grinding on and on for more than three months, there's finally some light at the end of the tunnel for the poor jurors involved in the Brooke Astor case. The prosecution finally rested its case yesterday afternoon! (The jury was a bit taken aback by the good news, it seems: "Several jurors panned the room with widened eyes.") And now it's the defense's turn. Don't expect an endless parade of boldface names to take the stand in Anthony Marshall and lawyer Francis X. Morrissey's defense. The most exciting witness today was a representative from the paper manufacturer Crane & Co. [NYT/CityRoom]
Stephen Dannhauser, the chairman Weil, Gotshal & Manges, has every reason to be sitting smugly in his office chair in the middle of Midtown. Last week, a judge signed off on the firm's $55 million tab for the work Weil has performed in connection with Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy; this week, the firm submitted another bill for $45.2 million more. Kenneth Feinberg, President Obama's pay czar, has suggested putting some sort of cap on Lehman's legal expenses going forward. Why? Isn't a $15,000 postage bill and $67,000 in business meal expenses perfectly reasonable? Ordering in dinner from Le Cirque every night isn't free, you know. [WSJ]
Artwalk NY's Junior Committee held its summer benefit on Saturday night in support of Coalition For the Homeless. Hosted by Bettina Prentice at her home in Sagaponack, attendees at the event included Minnie Mortimer and Stephen Gaghan, Michael Musto, Liam McMullan, Dalia Oberlander, Alan Rish, Kipton Cronkite, and Lisa Salzer—each of whom chipped in $25 at the door to benefit the organization. (The $25 allows the Coalition to feed 12 homeless New Yorkers people for a day.) Cityfile correspondent Douglas Marshall caught up with writer and dapper man-about-town Peter Davis to ask him about two very unlikely things: homelessness and his brother and sister-in law, Topper and Tinsley Mortimer.
When you set up that secret Swiss account of yours, you assumed that you could totally count on the bank to defend your privacy no matter what the cost, right? If it didn't, what else would Switzerland have to boast about, with the exception of solid skiing, pocket knives, and cough drops? It looks like the world's blandest nation will now have to come up with a new bullet point to add to its tourism brochures. And a trip to a Zurich bank vault will no longer be a staple of international crime capers.
