Rye's city council has been busy sweating its $31 million dollar annual budget. Peanuts. Imagine waking up and realizing the $3.3 billion you have under management for clients is not hammered by the market but gone. Bye-bye. Adios.
That's what happened to Tremont Group Holdings of 555 Theodore Fremd Avenue in Rye last week when executives woke up (literally and figuratively) to find they represented $3.3 billion of the $50 billion Bernard Madoff investment scandal and Ponzi scheme, one of the greatest financial shams in history.
Tremont, part of Oppenheimer Funds which in turn is part of the giant Mass Mutual, appears to have lost $3.1 billion in its Rye Investment Management Group that will wipe the group clean, as well as an additional $200 million lost in its Tremont Capital Group, according the Bloomberg News. The $3.3 billion represents over 50% of the funds under management by Tremont. Tremont has the second greatest exposure to the Ponzi scheme after Fairfield Greenwich Group, which is left holding a $7.5 billion dollar bag, according the The New York Times.
In describing their capabilities, Tremont lists many things including "top down and bottom up decision-making to enhance risk-adjusted returns and provide customized solutions for Tremont client needs… Risk assessment is integrated into every aspect of our investment process; … insights… over 100 years of collective experience…" Tremont executives, after they spend the next couple years fending off various lawsuits aimed at them, their auditors KPMG and Madoff, will have plenty of free time to brush up on those risk assessment skills.
Wait til the insane 137 tax hikes our looney governor Paterson has proposed kicks in . You’ll watch cash get hoovered out of your wallet hourly . Now the moron talks of yet another round of ‘soak the rich’ taxes to all but encourage our highest tax payers to flee for their lives since they already pay highest income taxes in the nation . With 200,000 state employees and more state workers per tax payer than any state in nation , Paterson could only find 521 he could bear to let go . No cuts in absurdly generous retirement packages for state employees …… Armageddon is coming to New York and towns like Rye with its absurdly overpriced real estate combined with highest property taxes in all USA are going to get crushed in process . It will make Tremont fiasco seem like kid’s stuff .
Armageddon is right…am-a-geddon outta here. People will be voting with there feet and heading south to where the quality of life is good and the cost of living is cheaper.