Friday, March 13, 2009

Messy Background of Cohen, O's Latest "FAIL"

You heard that Rodgin Cohen bailed out of an Obama Treasury post.

Here's a news report that I re-post. Pertinent material is in red.

But Mr. Cohen's immersion in the banking system also has at times put him in a difficult position. As he jumps from one client to the next, it is sometimes hard to tell whom he may be representing at a given moment.

In mid-September, Mr. Cohen represented Wachovia in its preliminary merger talks with Morgan Stanley. Several days later, after those talks faltered, he advised Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group as it negotiated a 21% stake in Morgan Stanley.

Mr. Cohen was counseling Lehman Brothers until it sought bankruptcy protection Sept. 15, and then pivoted to represent Barclays, which ended up buying the failed investment bank's U.S. operations. Late last month, as banks and private-equity firms rushed to examine WaMu's books, Mr. Cohen had to choose between four clients that wanted to hire him before settling on J.P. Morgan.

While this sort of crap may be ethical in the law business, it would get CPAs jailed--and absolutely RUIN other professional consulting careers.

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