Creeps, E-Mail, and the Economy

I came across this story while tracking down some items about those creeps at Bears Stearns who knew the sub-prime mortgage market was about to blow up and yet they continued to advise their clients to invest in these schemes.

These guys seemed to know what they were doing and took active measures to prevent the possible discovery of their wrong-doing by using out of office e-mail:

A few days later, Mr. Tannin, who was known within the group as a worrier, sent an e-mail message to Mr. Cioffi in which he suggested closing down the funds after a report showed that the securities they were holding were rapidly losing value. “If the report was true, the entire sub-prime market was toast,” he wrote to Mr. Cioffi. The sub-prime market looked “pretty dam ugly,” he wrote from his home, early Sunday morning.

It was a radical proposition from one of the funds’ managers, and Mr. Tannin took the precaution of not using Bear’s e-mail system, prosecutors said. He sent the note to the e-mail account of Mr. Cioffi’s wife.

Ok. So the guy sets up his innocent wife to be involved in his scheme. Creep! (Someone should tell these guys that a call from a public phone booth would make track back a bit harder than using the company e-mail system. Bu they are addicted to their Blackberries and electronic devices. Welcome to the wired world!)