– Mark Twain [1]
I begin with a thank you and a promise.
Thank you for purchasing this book and choosing to read it. In return, I promise to make this an interesting journey that is conversational when appropriate, as if I am speaking directly to you.
I will pose questions I believe will naturally come to mind, and then answer them frankly, as an adaptation of Aristotle’s deductive reasoning. Thus, associations drawn that naturally raise questions will be addressed to in turn, derive sound conclusions backed by verifiable facts. Such an adaptation will also yield some interesting digressions, which I am mindful of keeping pithy. I promise to keep things short, sweet and on point. Nevertheless, for those who may wish to drill down further, the Appendices avail YOU (the reader) the option to pursue a topic in greater depth, should you be so inclined.
Allow me to explain why this literary undertaking resulted a Trilogy (not my original intent, nor expectation), and follow it with an overview of each of the three volumes, along with what you may expect from this first volume. I’ll then complete this Introduction with an explication concerning how the book is formatted and provide guidance on how to most effectively use it.
Why Make This a Trilogy?
There are many logical reasons for splitting Cannibals in White Shoes into three distinct volumes and publishing them in seriatim:
- Commercial Feasibility– The first draft had resulted in a manuscript narrative of over 1,200 pages (excluding Appendices) with still plenty of other important anecdotes missing. Coming out with one massive finished product from a first-time author would simply not be a commercially sound approach for a literary work, and thus would make its success a decided long shot.
- Better Understanding– Due to the many elements that comprise the underlying scandal, its relative complexity lends itself to a better understanding by more people when segmented and time is allotted for the “digestion” of facts between publications.
- Enhanced Credibility– As the allegations throughout the Trilogy are certainly damning of those implicated in the perpetrated wrongdoings, there will no doubt be efforts to discredit and dismiss the assertions as spurious. To address this anticipated (and frankly invited) push-back, extensively developed Appendices accompany each volume, which are in turn segregated by the respective chapters to which they apply. And these Appendices are structured to be purely corroborating reference material for those who may doubt the veracity of the narrative, or otherwise wish to access additional information. This way, the core narrative is significantly less-daunting, yet well-supported.
- Better Traction– As a first-time author, it is especially challenging to garner the interest of the community of serial readers (i.e., those who regularly read books) as this represents a finite number of people whose reading attention is actively sought and often maintained by already well-known accomplished authors. In seeking to establish a new literary genre that will be embraced by the reading community at large, a multi-month horizon for the sequential publishing of all three volumes provides an opportunity for better traction in the market for these highly desirable readers. Doing so also improves the likelihood of expanding the market by attracting new readers, especially those with proclivities toward activism and being part of something important which they themselves may directly benefit from.
- Stories Pending– At the time of publishing this first volume there remain some unfinished stories that will likely continue to unfold for inclusion in Volume 3, and publication of the preceding Volumes will help accelerate their closure.
- Outlandish Cover-Up– Efforts to prevent the publication of Cannibals in White Shoes have been extensive, unrelenting and altogether outlandish, including: (i) a baseless assault and violent arrest by a heavily armed U.S. Marshal SWAT team; (ii) an unlawful incarceration in a maximum security jail for 127 days with the most violent of felons; (iii) a fraudulent baseless extradition from Florida to North Carolina; (iv) an unlawful denial of bail and legal representation; (v) criminal charges literally made up out of thin air and eventually dismissed as meritless; (vi) an unlawful ransacking of my Florida residence resulting in the theft of all of my computers which not only sought to undermine the publication of this Trilogy, but represented a desperate attempt to obstruct justice in destroying evidence of criminal wrongdoing by dangerously corrupt public officials; as well as (vii) an outrageous paternity fraud of behalf of a five-time felon, orchestrated by a depraved judge harkening from rural county in Kansas that not only lacks jurisdiction, but from a county where I have never stepped foot in my life! Yes, life can certainly be stranger than fiction.
Now let’s take a big picture view of this Trilogy, shall we?
Overview of the Three Volumes
Each volume in this StorySagaQuestMore covers different elements of the scandal which naturally developed into distinct storylines that build upon one another. Each covers events that took place during relatively finite time periods of 5 to 6 years and in the geographic settings of primarily three states, although since there has been a significant level of coordination by corrupt officials, there are other states are involved in the wrongdoing – for instance, Kansas, as noted above.
While each volume is being published under the banner title of Cannibals in White Shoes: The MorganStanleyGate Exposé, their subtitles hint at their content and geographic settings:
Volume 1: Big Apple Battleground — The who, what, where, when, why and how it all started is revealed, with midtown Manhattan in the “Big Apple” serving as the primary setting for this New York battleground, and covering principally the scandal-related events that transpired from the years 2000 to 2005.
Volume 2: Carolina Coup De Grace — This covers the period extending from 2005 to 2010, detailing the events leading up to the intended “death blow” of the cover-up efforts that played out in North Carolina; however, contrary to the implicit nature of a coup de grace, there was nothing merciful in the diabolical tactics employed.
Volume 3: Sunshine State Offensive — The full extent of MorganStanleyGate is divulged, including the even more outlandish cover-up efforts that transpired in Florida over the years from 2010 through 2016. Importantly, in response to the collective wrongdoings of MorganStanleyGate, the initiatives to spur meaningful positive change are outlined, including the attention-getting incentives to join in one of the causes to dismantle some of the rigged systems of oppression that made MorganStanleyGate possible.
As to whether there will be an Epilogue to this Trilogy depends in part on how the lingering issues are concluded and how effective this literary effort is in motivating others to unite to effect meaningful positive change.
What’s Contained in Volume 1?
In this inaugural volume, you will note the frequent use of metaphors, analogies drawn with select cultural works, and the presentation of historical references in an interesting light, revealing facts you may not have known, or perhaps were only vaguely familiar with. If I’ve done my job, there will be many instances where your reaction will be one of shock, and perhaps evince some “NFWs” along the way.
At times, snarky humor is infused as a hopefully welcomed respite from some of the dark areas where this StorySagaQuestMore must go – after all, this is an exposé of yet-untold wrongdoing by a “too big to fail” bank. There are also 101 informative and entertaining videos accessible through the Appendices to supplement the content in a clarifying manner and hopefully make this Trilogy an enriching multi-media experience.
Throughout this journey, there will be “stops” along the way to review some cultural masterpieces, such as dissecting parts of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and drawing comparisons with certain key elements of the MorganStanleyGate scandal. In another instance, we will use Dante’s classic Inferno from his Divine Comedy to establish a framework by which to evaluate and measure the severity of Morgan Stanley’s transgressions. which will be germane to all three volumes of this Trilogy.
At times, we will be time-travelers in history, making stops at such places as the Pyramids of Giza during their construction, to momentous events pertaining to some of America’s wars (e.g., Revolutionary, World War II and Viet Nam), and cover numerous relevant American presidencies. We will review forms of government and durations of existence for well-known empires (e.g., Roman, Byzantine) and compare them to the current state of the Union for the United States of America.
We reveal some glaring hypocrisies of our Founding Fathers, unwittingly celebrated by carrying reminders in our pockets and pocketbooks. We also address many of the atrocities in the Middle Passage Slave Trade and related “Black Holocaust”, as well as the Native American Genocide, and present these horrific manifestations in relation to the Nazi atrocities carried out during World War II, and neatly summarize them in a “Holocaust Leaderboard”.
So as to give you a sense of who I am as a fellow human being, I recount fond memories in my upbringing, made possible by loving parents, and a Grandfather who served two terms as Treasurer of New York City, and who also collaborated with Fred Trump (yes, Donald’s father) to avert a looming fiscal crisis for the City. In so doing, I also review what my war hero father endured during the Nazi POW Death March of 1945, which rivals the storyline to the book and movie, Unbroken.
From my six years at Cornell University, I recount a variety of entertaining events during my time as an undergrad and graduate student, with many rich anecdotes that should make you feel reasonably knowledgeable of what campus life was like at this Ivy-league university. Stories include my playing football for a head coach who later went on to win five NFL Super Bowl rings, and also running a photography business monopoly with the assistance of Cornell University during my years at the Graduate School of Business. I cover how I crossed paths with two future billionaires, whom I later reached out to for assistance in confronting the horrors of MorganStanleyGate, where I was not only met with profound disappointment, it appears one of them played a contributory role. Nevertheless, since these events occurred during the later stages of this scandal, they are covered in the ensuing volumes of this Trilogy.
I then cover my career in corporate finance and investment banking, again through use of interesting anecdotes – for instance, how Donald Trump showed up to meetings with two massive body guards resembling Neanderthals who always flanked him for intimidating effect. Insight into the inner sanctum of investment banking is revealed from the launching of the CMBS (“Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities”) business at JPMorgan to the running the CMBS Conduit operation at Morgan Stanley, as it became the #1 global issuer of CMBS and what was involved in creating the IQ® (“Institutional Quality”) debt security and franchise.
The second half of this Volume 1 then gets into the nitty gritty of the MorganStanleyGate scandal, addressing some of its many dastardly elements, which contradict pretty much everything we grew up believing concerning the American way of rewarding productive achievement. While much of the history recounted in the second half of this Volume 1 is parochial to the MorganStanleyGate scandal, there is occasion to briefly visit certain well-known and frequently bantered conspiracy theories (e.g., the JFK Assassination and Sept. 11 Attacks).
In the context of a merchant banking hedge fund I was launching with the real estate capital markets heads at many of my former clients, we visit relevant Greek Mythology and its association with a classic best-selling novel by Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, and tie them into the innovative approach of this business undertaking.
After perhaps invoking many incredulous “I can’t believe they did that” reactions, we review another classic, The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli to explain the insidious culture that is entrenched at Morgan Stanley. In so doing, we recount three scandals that exploded in the national news and became public relations nightmares, that are direct byproducts of this vicious “take no prisoners” mindset that is Morgan Stanley’s hallmark. We then expose the insidious details and devastating impact of the New York Smear Campaign employed against me.
With an understanding of this culture, you will have an appreciation for the depths of moral depravity Morgan Stanley engaged in to cover-up their ever-growing misdeeds, and how I was coping emotionally, and what countervailing actions I undertook. As horrible as Morgan Stanley’s acts of aggression were during the first few years of this scandal, they certainly pale in comparison to its outright criminal activities, which are addressed in Volumes 2 and 3, as the Bank’s cover-up efforts became increasingly desperate, in complete disregard of the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights, most notably my rights.
Now let’s review the unique . . .
Book Format & How to Use It
If you’ve already perused the Table of Contents, you have no doubt noticed it is rather extensive and meticulously constructed – likely far more than you’ve seen in other books. Thus, you may wonder why this was necessary.
There are many elements to MorganStanleyGate, which is a scandal that has steadily transmogrified over roughly one-and-a-half decades, and has been predicated on fraud and motivated by a level of greed that most find difficult to comprehend or otherwise relate to. As there has been a substantial amount of money involved (in fact $ billions), and the downside faced by those who perpetrated the associated iniquities has been substantial, there has been a great deal of subterfuge (i.e., bullshit), and clarity is the best way I know to get to “the truth”. In the event you skipped reading the Preface to this book, you may be wondering . . .
Why are there are so many pages of content?
The girth of this first Volume may viscerally appear daunting, but keep in mind two-thirds of it is comprised of Appendices, which should be primarily used as supplemental references for the narrative of the ensuing Chapters, as well as some of the front sections of the book (i.e., the Foreword, Preface, Acknowledgements and this Introduction).
The Appendices are replete with articles, images, illustrations, charts, tables, documents, emails, official records, presentations and for those reading this Trilogy in its multi-media format, access to relevant and entertaining videos. Notwithstanding, those using the more traditional reading formats are provided with the descriptions and URLs to those videos, so they can be separately accessed to enrich their reading experience.
The Appendices also contain personal elements and cherished memories that may in some instances (in particular, the Appendices for Chapters 4 through 6) be reminiscent of a personal family album and scrapbook, dating back five generations. Included are letters my father had written home during his captivity as a Nazi POW. As my father sadly passed away before his grandsons were born, this also serves as a touching memorial for them to get to know the personal side of the brave, inspirational and great man their paternal grandfather truly was. Also included are the remarkable accomplishments of their paternal great grandfather that I am quite sure my sons know nothing about, which I hope will make them feel justifiably proud.
Having such comprehensive Appendices allow for a streamlined narrative, making the chapters readily manageable for reading consumption. Accordingly, the actual narrative in any Volume of this Trilogy has a considerably lower aggregate word count than most other comparable books of nonfiction. Now you may be wondering . . .
How are the Appendices organized?
As previously noted, each of the Appendices are segregated by chapter, and the topics associated with each chapter are conveniently listed in either alphabetical or chronological order, along with the referenced page number on which each topic begins. In each case, the source is identified, and where applicable, a hyperlink is provided for those who seek additional information
Another question may come to mind along the lines of “Are there any other reasons why the Appendices are so extensive?”
Yes. As you will see, the allegations against Morgan Stanley throughout this Trilogy are decidedly damning, therefore push back will likely be substantial, and will presumably be predicated on blanket denials, together with an effort to dismissively portray me as merely a disgruntled former employee who is off his rocker. In a way, I hope they do. For by so doing, they will demonstrate, for all to see, that this is indeed a deceitful financial institution incapable of operating within the realm of reality, unable to embrace the truth, and unwilling to stand accountable for its horrific misdeeds that effectively represent an assault on the American way of life.
For instance, it would be especially elucidating if Morgan Stanley tried to recast their employment fraud as legitimate actions, when their own official personnel records (yes, they are also conveniently included in the Appendix, specifically the Appendix for Chapter 18 – The Prince and the Pantless Truth) show a malicious fraud was obviously perpetrated.
Morgan Stanley’s nefarious acts were instigated by the unbridled greed of colleagues who later played prominent roles in the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, which brought about the Great Recession and necessitated a secret bailout of Morgan Stanley by U.S. taxpayers in an amount of more than $2 TRILLION. And no, that is not a typo, nor an exaggeration.
Do you find that bailout amount hard to believe?
If so, you can begin getting acclimated with this supplemental resource by going to the “Appendix for the Introduction“ (refer to the Table of Contents for the page number), and access details about this secret bailout. You will see Morgan Stanley received bailout monies from the Federal Reserve well in excess of the $10 Billion authorized for Morgan Stanley by Congress, pursuant to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
How much Morgan Stanley received depends on who you ask, and when you inquired. It this case, well-respected institutions, namely Bloomberg Business News (BBN), the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and a think tank, the Levy Economics Institute (LEI), arrived at remarkably different results from the same data released by the Federal Reserve, as noted below:
Morgan Stanley’s Bailout by the Fed
| How Much? |
$107 Billion[2] |
$2.04 Trillion |
$2.27 Trillion |
| Who Says? |
BBN |
GAO |
LEI |
| When Said? |
Aug. 2011 |
Jul. 2011 |
Dec. 2011 |
The disparity in their respective findings is also notably pronounced (but not proportionate) when inquiry is made into the aggregate amount of the secret bailout by the Federal Reserve:
Aggregate Federal Reserve Bailout
| How Much? |
$7.7 Trillion[3] |
$16.1 Trillion[4] |
$29.6 Trillion[5] |
| Who Says? |
BBN |
GAO |
LEI |
| When Said? |
Aug. 2011 |
Jul. 2011 |
Dec. 2011 |
How could the numbers be so different?
The answer lies in the fact that: (1) the Federal Reserve is a highly secretive institution, and has long shown no interest in sharing the particulars of its operations with the public; (2) different parameters were used in measuring the bailout amounts; and (3) the topic is very complex, and one which most Americans are pretty much clueless about . . . and that is by design.
I frankly have no idea how Bloomberg arrived at its numbers[6], as it has not shared its methodology, but the GAO would seem to have over-stated the bailout amounts, as it treated a $1 billion overnight loan outstanding for 30 days as being a bailout of $30 billion – to most, that makes no sense. In fact, such an approach is so ridiculous, those cynical of the government might think this was purposeful to divert attention from what really happened.
For instance, if you look at the ensuing chart of total Fed loans outstanding at their peak during this crisis (roughly $1 Trillion in early 2009) you might conclude the GAO had grossly overstated the full extent of the bailout. This is precisely how then Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke responded to irate Congressmen after their having read the results of the GAO audit – in fact, Mr. Bernanke called the GAO’s findings “egregious errors”.
Now what if I told you, the GAO’s methodology and representations were indeed flawed, and as a result, it had substantially understated the extent of the Federal Reserve’s bailout. I would expect you to respond along the lines of . . .
“Say what? How could that possibly be the case?”
Upon review of its analysis, the LEI Think Tank appears to have arrived at a more accurate number of just a shade under $30 TRILLION[7], as they evaluated the bailout in the context of the Fed being the Lender of Last Resort (LOLR), who instituted a series of programs throughout the Subprime Mortgage Crisis and Great Recession that were designed to calm the very jittery financial markets. And these programs included the LOLR agreeing to buy affected assets held by banks and issuing a range of credit facilities to the “too-big-to-fail” banks that were in effect additional commitments (or backstop guarantees) by the Fed in the event things really went into the toilet.
Now your response at this point might be, “How do these additional commitments made by the Fed amount to a much larger bailout than envisioned by Congress?”
Think of it this way. Let’s say your name was Mr. (or Ms.) Banks, with a unique unisex first name of “Reckless” and you had a huge gambling problem. Some very risky bets you placed in Las Vegas didn’t pan out and resulted in a massive debt that loan sharks said you had to pay in full by the end of the week, or they would “put you in cement shoes and drop you in the East River”. Your only hope out of this predicament was to go to your rich uncle – let’s call him “Uncle Sam”, and then scream “HELP!”
After ruminating on your dire situation, your uncle says – “Although I am indeed wealthy enough to help you out of this jam, my money is tied up in various investments and I simply don’t have that amount of cash available, especially on such short notice”. Crushed by this reply you begin to turn away dejectedly, expecting the worst will eventually play out, when your uncle suddenly quips “. . . HOWEVER, I will be happy to guarantee the repayment of loans you get from others, so you can pay off the loan sharks.”
Suddenly others who had turned you away as if you carried the Ebola virus are now more than happy to lend you the money you need to get yourself out of this pickle, because they know your Uncle Sam is good for it.
You now have an understanding of how the Fed’s bailout was actually MUCH larger than represented, and if you reviewed the contents of the Appendix to the Introduction to confirm what you may have initially thought was unfathomable, you have an idea of how to use the Appendices. In other words, their use is entirely optional – if you doubt that which is revealed in this Trilogy, you can consult the associated Appendix to confirm its veracity. In the event I earn your confidence that my facts and contentions are accurate, you can skip the Appendices – it’s entirely up to you.
Ok, now that you have been sufficiently briefed on the Appendices and given an opportunity to test out their use, you may be wondering . . .
How should the Index (located in the back section of this book) be used?
The Index contains an alphanumeric listing of key persons, places and things (be they entities, concepts or events) that would likely be considered relevant and of interest to readers, along with the page number upon which they appear.
As I have crossed paths with a very large number of people throughout my life and career, and this StorySagaQuestMore is as much a memoir as it is an exposé, there are, as you might expect, many people mentioned in this Trilogy. And as people who know me catch wind of the existence of this literary work, they will likely be interested in knowing to what extent and in what context they have been included and perhaps curious as to how they have been portrayed.
The index provides them an easy way to find out if they “made the cut” and how their interactions with me have been described. And while I can’t promise everyone’s appearance herein will be effusively flattering, I can certainly stand behind the accuracy of the facts presented, as well as the articulated clarity and soundness of my expressed opinions.
You may also be wondering, “What’s contained in the Glossary, (also located in the back section of this book) and how should this resource be utilized?”
There are many specialized terms and acronyms used throughout this book, particularly since much of the setting is in capital markets, corporate finance, commercial real estate and investment banking and therefore somewhat technical in nature, especially regarding industry jargon.
Accordingly, the Glossary explains terminology that may be foreign to some.
Lastly, you will note that each section and chapter has at least two and as many nine accompanying videos to enhance your reading experience. While those topics that have a video are indicated as such in the Appendices, each of the 101 videos supplementing this Volume 1 are also conveniently listed in the back section of the book, and is titled Videos.
* * * * *
A great deal of effort went into producing this literary work, and I sincerely hope you find this reading experience to be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious – yes, this is an actual word in the English language that accurately expresses my wish, and is not merely the title of a popular song in the movie, Mary Poppins.[8]
So, let us begin our journey, shall we?
_________________________________________________________________
Footnotes:
Cannibals In White Shoes 