BrokerDealers That Do Dare To Be Different: Diversity & Inclusion

dean chamberlain

BrokerDealer.com blog update takes a different tact in this post and sends a salute to 6-pack leader Citigroup, along with interest-aligned boutique firms Mischler Financial Group and Williams Capital for a focus on something other than its trading PnL. The topic? Diversity & Inclusion. Sounds corny, sounds like a social program that merely meets the ‘check the box’ approach by those who know they have to seem good to get paid. But then again, because this platform connects with broker-dealers across the US, as well as throughout the rest of the free world in which capitalism reigns, the team at BrokerDealer.com knows that the initiative highlighted here is nothing short of genuine.

Mischler Financial Group, the financial industry’s oldest minority firm owned and operated by Service-Disabled Veterans [and the securities industry’s only federally-certified SDVBE] along with Williams Capital, the industry’s leading African-American owned brokerdealer have taken great pride in playing a supporting role in the below Citigroup-produced video profiling the firm’s unqualified dedication to diversity and inclusion that Citi, one of the world’s largest banks and a Top 25 Fortune corporations maintains across their entire ecosystem.

A founder of Veterans On Wall Street (VOWS) along with Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, as well as being “a lead book-runner” in multiple year-round initiatives to advance the support of many great causes, Citi is a true thought leader on the topic of D&I within the context of not only the financial services sector, but also within the framework of global corporation best practices.

citi progress makers april 10 citi video

The video below, which formally aired April 10 (also available on the Citi blog) is uniquely impactful thanks to the influential roles played by Citi leaders Kate Oddo, Director of Debt Capital Markets, Patrice Altongy Managing Director Fixed Income Capital Markets, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Karen Papazian, Director, Dealer Lending Operations, Toyota Financial Services. The presentation speaks volumes as to Citi’s D&I-driven relationship with Toyota Motors Inc. (NYSE:TM) wholly-owned subsidiary, Toyota Motor Credit Corporation (TMCC), one of the global capital markets’ most focused Issuers of securities, and indisputably, one of the corporate world’s most respected D&I practitioners.

The clip below, entitled “Wall Street Leaders Can Dare to be Different” profiles just one of many approaches on the part of Citi to further the importance of D&I initiatives, and represents a welcome and increasingly growing trend taking place across Wall Street.

Sharing the same philosophy that Citi is dedicated to, the leadership and team at Mischler Financial Group is unabashedly dedicated to the thesis that Diversity & Inclusion programs strike at the heart of corporate best practices. We believe that those who embrace the tenants of D&I are likely to be better for it in the eyes of their stakeholders , which necessarily include respective employees, the consumers and communities they serve, and the investors/shareholders who look to corporate leaders to always deliver better performance.

BrokerDealers Plead Guilty to Bribery

Brokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of Reuters.

Two Brokerdealer executives based out of New York have plead guilty to being a part of a Venezuelan bribery scheme.

c40cd2c24ec2908a36d325e671e2Two former executives of a defunct New York broker-dealer pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges stemming from their involvement in a foreign bribery scheme involving their employer and a Venezuelan state economic development bank.

Benito Chinea, the former chief executive of Direct Access Partners LLC, and Joseph Demeneses, a onetime managing director at the firm, each pleaded guilty to a conspiracy count in federal court in Manhattan.

Chinea, 48, admitted that in 2011 discussed how to make a bribe payment to the head trader at state-owned Banco de Desarrollo Económico y Social de Venezuela, known as Bandes.

“I knew it was improper and wrong and in violation of U.S. laws to make an agreement with others to make a bribe payment,” he said.

The pleas by Chinea and Demeneses, 46, were the latest to stem from a broad U.S. investigation into foreign bribery involving Direct Access Partners and Venezuelan state economic development banks.

Prosecutors said the men participated in a scheme from 2008 through 2012 involving payments to the head trader and senior official at Bandes, Maria de los Angeles Gonzalez de Hernandez.

Prosecutors have previously said the kickback scheme generated more than $60 million in fees for Direct Access through the bond trading business Gonzalez directed to the firm in exchange for $5 million in kickbacks.

Direct Access’s parent company filed for bankruptcy after charges were first unveiled in May 2013.

For brokerdealers who follow the rules and are guilty free, check out Brokerdealer.com’s database and join today.

Fantasy is Reality For This Investment Banker

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Drew Dinkmeyer

Brokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of Wall Street Journal.

For one brokerdealer his enjoyment for fantasy sports turned into a profiting, full-time career

Drew Dinkmeyer was a 31-year-old investment analyst when, two years ago, he decided to do something that most people would consider clinically insane: He quit his job in finance to play fantasy sports for a living.

Dinkmeyer, who was profiled in a front-page Wall Street Journal story on his last day of work in 2013, was one of the earliest stars of daily fantasy sports, a twist on the traditional game in which players draft new teams every day instead of sticking with them for a full season.

It turns out that Dinkmeyer wasn’t crazy at all. At the time, he said, he was already making as much money playing fantasy sports as he was in finance. That hasn’t changed since his side job became his full-time job, he says.

He also just hit his version of the jackpot. Last week, along with more than 100,000 contestants, Dinkmeyer entered a football tournament hosted by the DraftKings daily-fantasy site—and Dinkmeyer won first place.

The prize: $1 million.

“I’ve had profitable years in both baseball and basketball so far,” he said Tuesday, “and now football is going to be a hugely profitable year.”

Dinkmeyer entered 49 teams into last weekend’s “Millionaire Maker” tournament. Each entry cost $27 for a total investment of about $1,300. For the 44th of his 49 teams, Dinkmeyer drafted New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning and wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., a combination that combined for six touchdowns on Sunday, much to Dinkmeyer’s surprise. Manning had never worked out for him in the past. “It has been a disaster,” he said. “For years, I’ve been afraid to use him, because I don’t feel like I have a good read on him.

For the full article from Wall Street Journal, click here.