Bear Stearns CEO says pot smoking story untrue

[UpInArms]

Source: Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bear Stearns Cos Inc (BSC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Chief Executive Jimmy Cayne denied he "engaged in inappropriate conduct" after a Wall Street Journal article said on Thursday he smoked marijuana with a woman in a Memphis hotel bathroom.

The newspaper cited unidentified sources to describe the 2004 pot smoking incident, which Cayne said was untrue.

Fox-Pitt Kelton analyst David Trone said the mere accusation alone will make it difficult for Bear Stearns' board to support the 73-year-old Cayne.

Cayne has been criticized for spending too much time playing bridge and golf while Bear stumbled this summer on wrong-way bets on subprime mortgages. Two Bear-run hedge funds collapsed, a crisis that unfolded as Cayne, a world-class bridge player, competed in a tournament in Nashville.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0148190620071101?sp=true

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and I bet no one can guess where James Cayne's (and his wife - Patricia) political contributions go?

http://newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=NY&last=Cayne

[aquart]

1. Bear Stearns is a criminal enterprise.

Anyone who believes that a wrist-slapping $37 million dollar settlement taught them to be nice and play by the rules is just nuts.

[Democrats_win]

2. Bright Lights, Big City. Bear Stearns is smoking something Sh*ty.

[Taverner]

3. Doesn't surprise me. C-Levels notoriously get baked.

I just wish they weren't closet stoners - they need to come out

[KoKo]

4. Wasn't Larry Kudlow at Bear Sterns when he had his Coke Problem?

I seem to remember that. He had to go into rehab and then came out under Chimpy as the Supply Sider in Chief on CNBC always touting his great Reagan buddies every night.

[mark414]

5. so he's in the business of fucking people over, but him smoking pot is somehow an issue?

:crazy:

[Ian David]

6. And this wasn't even the CEO who used to write about his imaginary friend in his official memos? n/t

[Toots]

7. Notice it is the Pot they focus on and not the fact that he was in a hotel room with a woman

A woman that was not his wife...What is worse to a Republican, smoking Pot or committing Adultery? I don't know anywhere in the Bible that it says Pot is bad but Adultery is suggested as being the very worst of Crimes and listed in the Ten Commandments.

[ozu]

9. Well...

Hotel bathroom actually, which would be a somewhat logical place to smoke with someone you'd just met. Or at least I don't think it sounds unreasonable. Adultery doesn't appear to be implied in the article.

Re: the article itself, the billions his hedge funds have bilked off of investors are surely a worse crime than sharing a joint.

[jaksavage]

8. I feel sorry for him

He is friggin 73 and he can't be honest and say,"yea, so what."