MERRILL INSIDER 'FESSES UP (global insider-trading scam hatched in NYC Russian bathhouse)

NY POST ^ | July 15, 2006 | JANET WHITMAN

[Liz]

A former junior banker at Merrill Lynch yesterday confessed to of a brazen insider-trading scheme that also enlisted an exotic dancer, a retired Croatian seamstress, a New Jersey mailman and moles inside a BusinessWeek print shop..........the Trans-Atlantic stock fraud scam that racked up $6.7 million in ill-gotten gains.......

Trading on tips from the young banker on six big mergers netted $6.4 million of the illicit profits, making it by far the most lucrative scheme concocted by the insider-trading ring's masterminds, Eugene Plotkin, 27, and David Pajcin, 29.

The pair, who met while they both worked at Goldman Sachs, recruited Shpigelman in November 2004 at a Russian bathhouse in lower Manhattan called Spa 88. Plotkin had earlier helped Shpigelman get an internship at Merrill while he was a student at SUNY in Binghamton.......investigators found $8,000 in a safe deposit box belonging to Shpigelman, who got a kickback on the illegal trades.

[Liz]

...... the brazen insider-trading scheme enlisted an exotic dancer, a retired Croatian seamstress, a New Jersey mailman and moles inside a BusinessWeek print shop .......

Cast of characters and locales sounds like something from a James Bond movie.

[Liz]

Why worry? Your investments are secure and protected(/sarc).

[Liz]

As Charlie Luciano remarked after visiting NYSE: "I joined the wrong mob".

Would make a great tagline. LOL.

[Clintonfatigued]

There is undoubtedly a "Law & Order" episode on this being written as we blog.

[kcvl]

Mr. Plotkin on the dance floor.

Mr. Plotkin’s specialty was Latin dance: the cha-cha, rumba, samba, pasa doble and jive. While not the most rhythmic dancer, he cut a dramatic figure with his tall, slender frame, slicked-back hair and striking facial expressions.

Since his arrest, the 26-year-old Mr. Plotkin has been locked up in the Metropolitan Correctional Center near the Manhattan courthouses, unable to meet a $3 million bail.

Eugene Plotkin—Gene to his family and friends—was born in Moscow. The family emigrated from Russia when he was in middle school. They spent some time in Suffern, N.Y., but eventually settled in Palo Alto, where his father works in computer programming

[kcvl]

David Pajcin, the ex-broker, was named in August in a separate civil case brought by securities regulators for his role in alleged trading misconduct and phony identities involving Reebok International options.


The SEC on August 5 froze an online brokerage account in the name of Sonja Anticevic, a retired woman living in the small city of Omis on the coast of Croatia.

Described by Croatian newspapers as a former underwear factory worker, Anticevic was accused by the SEC of insider trading in Reebok options ahead of news that the sports gear maker would be acquired by Adidas-Salomon AG.


Pajcin is the nephew of Anticevic, according to the SEC.

[Liz]

LOL-----a dancer?----that's a riot.

[Liz]

O-o-o-o----juice stuff. Thanks.

[Grampa Dave]

Yep, sounds like a plot from a well written James Bond movie.

[Grampa Dave]

There is a guy in the picture?:)

[Liz]

Aha----- wait til your trophy bride hears about this. LOL.

[Liz]

Heh----don't watch it but I hear they do borrow plots from realtime crimes.

[durasell]

The woman from Cheers is in it -- she can actually act. Who knew?