If there’s one thing sober minded people can agree on, it’s that “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” hats are ugly. It’s a rope style cap that is solely fashionable at private golf clubs that only allow white, straight males as members. The hue of the classic MAGA cap is a hideous shade of red. What is it? Crimson? Scarlet? Rose? Who gives a shit, it’s ugly. The font is in all caps Times Roman, so we know that it’s meant to bellowed like a drunk Patriots fan. And the slogan is basically plagiarized, making it soulless, unimaginative and blatantly dishonest. Regardless of your politics, I think you’ll agree that these eyesores should be smote into ash.
Which brings us to this story. Greg Piatek is a manager at Deloitte who is suing The Happiest Hour, a bar in New York’s West Village, for refusing to serve him and his buddies over his #MAGA cap. Yep! This is a real American story, people. Here’s the New York Post:
The shake-up started when Piatek and two pals, after a visit to the 9/11 Memorial, ordered drinks at the posh tavern around 6:30 p.m. Jan. 28.
A female bartender served Piatek a $15 jalapeño margarita and his pals beers. But when he tried to order a second round, a male bartender noticed his hat — and skipped them, he said.
One of Piatek’s pals pointed out it was their turn to be served, but the bartender scoffed. “Is that hat a joke?” the Manhattan Supreme Court suit claims he said.
Yes, yes it is a joke! It’s a hideous item of clothing that you should not wear on your head. If you were cast out into the cold naked and alone, you should refrain from wearing this hat, even if to cover yourself. The hat is ugly.
But it also infers a political message. A political message that lots of people in, say New York City, don’t agree with and many find offensive. Thereby, wearing the hat in a West Village bar cannot be construed as anything other than an audacious troll move. Piatek knew or should have known that wearing that particular hat in that particular place was bound to get a reaction out of someone. And, what do you know, it worked like a charm.
Now he’s claiming that the whole situation has left him “humiliated, degraded, victimized, embarrassed and emotionally distressed.” In other words: Sad! No, really, Piatek’s lawyer said that it was his client’s “saddest hour.”
Anyway, someone give Greg a new hat, please. Not just to cheer him up but also to give him something a little more fashionable to wear. Maybe a mesh visor or a fedora? Any other ideas are welcome.
~ Update includes clarification of partner’s employment status and statements from accused’s attorneys via MarketWatch.
~ Update at circa 7:20 pm ET includes statement from Deloitte
If you thought all this insider trading fun was just for hedge funds you would be sorely mistaken. Deloitte seems to have another case of a partner who can’t seem to control himself when he gets some insider info. Earlier this year, former Deloitte Vice Chairman Tom Fla > shelled out $1.1 million to settle charges with the SEC.
This time around, it’s still a family affair – husband, wife, wife’s sister and brother-in-law job – and it went overseas:
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former Deloitte Tax LLP partner and his wife with repeatedly leaking confidential merger and acquisition information to family members overseas in a multi-million dollar insider trading scheme.
The SEC alleges that Arnold McClellan and his wife Annabel, who live in San Francisco, provided advance notice of at least seven confidential acquisitions planned by Deloitte’s clients to Annabel’s sister and brother-in-law in London. After receiving the illegal tips, the brother-in-law took financial positions in U.S. companies that were targets of acquisitions by Arnold McClellan’s clients. His subsequent trades were closely timed with telephone calls between Annabel McClellan and her sister, and with in-person visits with the McClellans. Their insider trading reaped illegal profits of approximately $3 million in U.S. dollars, half of which was to be funneled back to Annabel McClellan.
The UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) has announced charges against the two relatives — James and Miranda Sanders of London. The FSA also charged colleagues of James Sanders whom he tipped with the nonpublic information in the course of his work at his London-based derivatives firm. Sanders’s tippees and clients made approximately $20 million in U.S. dollars by trading on the inside information.
So not a bad haul. The kicker is, Annabel was also employed at Deloitte, working in the London, San Jose and San Francisco offices. The McClellans provided information to the Sanders on several companies including Kronos, Inc., aQuantive, Inc. and Getty Images.
The SEC brass gave their standard scolding. First, Enforcement Chief, Robert Khuzami, “The McClellans might have thought that they could conceal their illegal scheme by having close relatives make illegal trades offshore. They were wrong.”
And San Fran Director Marc Fagel, “Deloitte and its clients entrusted Arnold McClellan with highly confidential information. Along with his wife, he abused that trust and used high-placed access to corporate secrets for the couple’s own benefit and their family’s enrichment.”
But the real story here is the second instance of insider trading charges against a Deloitte partner this year. The firm successfully sued Tom Flanagan back in January but you have to wonder if there isn’t some flaw with the firm’s internal oversight. Not long after the Flanagan suit, we reported on the 475 reprimands for internal noncompliance in 2009. Those reprimands did not mention insider trading specifically but over 200 of them were related to independence violations. Pattern? You can weigh in below.
Anyone with any knowledge on this story is invited to get in touch with us. as it is not clear if there has been any internal repercussions yet. Messages (including voicemail, carrier pigeon and morse code) left with Deloitte have not been returned (see statement below).
Lawyers for Arnold McClellan denied charges Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission that the former Deloitte Tax LLP partner was involved in a big insider trading scheme. “Arnold McClellan denies the SEC’s claims and will vigorously contest them,” Elliot Peters and Christopher Kearney of Keker & Van Nest LLP said in a statement on behalf of McClellan. “He did not trade on insider information, and there will be no evidence that he passed along any confidential information to anyone.” McClellan “had no financial incentive to commit the actions alleged,” the lawyers added. “He is a conscientious, law-abiding professional with a 23-year unblemished track record of client service at Deloitte to prove it. We will see the SEC in court.”
And just to clarify, McClellan is no longer with Deloitte, leaving the firm in June of this year. Deloitte spokesman Jonathan Gandal emailed us the firm statement (see below) still hasn’t returned our call (busy day, right?) but managed to give a statement toand was quoted by Reuters, saying that he was “shocked and saddened” by the allegations and “If the allegations prove to be true, they would represent serious violations of our strict and regularly communicated confidentiality policies.”
UPDATE 2: Here is the full statement from Deloitte:
“We are shocked and saddened by these allegations against our former tax partner and members of his family. If the allegations prove to be true, they would represent serious violations of our strict and regularly communicated confidentiality policies. Deloitte is committed to safeguarding non-public client information and has cooperated with the SEC throughout its investigation. The SEC does not allege any wrongdoing by Deloitte in this unfortunate matter.”