MarketWatch: Ken Langone claims on CNBC to have knowledge Spitzer bought mail orders for hooker

[seafan]

What Role did Langone Play in Spitzer’s Fall?

By Herb Geenberg, Market Watch
March 12th, 2008

Conspiracy theorists are having a field day with the Eliot Spitzer story, and they have good reason: Wall Street titan Ken Langone, one of Spitzer’s archest of enemies, made it sound as though there’s more to the story.

Check out this transcript from a CNBC interview with Langone that aired yesterday:

CNBC: Would you say that you were surprised by this news?

LANGONE: Not at all. I had no doubt about his lack of character and integrity. It would only be a matter of time, I didn’t think he would do it this soon or the way he did it. But I know for sure he went himself to a post office and bought $2,800 worth of mail orders to send to the hooker.

CNBC: How do you know that?

LANGONE: I know it. I know somebody who was standing in back of him in line….

Langone’s comments were pretty much ignored after they first aired until I brought it up again today while on Squawk on the Street. And I have to be honest: When I first saw that interview, I did a double-take and wondered if Langone really said what i thought I heard — and I’m not talking about whether the governor really went to the post office himself, waiting in line with the rest of us, to buy stamps, money orders or to mail a package.

Maybe Langone was being somewhat facetious about the post office, but he surely made it appear as though he knew ahead of time what Spitzer was up to.

There’s no surprise that everybody from the most powerful on Wall Street to the mob were out to take Spitzer down. (I mean, if you’re going after the mob, and you’re using prostitutes, my guess is your secret won’t be a secret for very long.) I was part of a discussion regarding this earlier on CNBC. My pal and sparring partner Charlie Gasparino, who has been actively attacking the business press for not being critical enough on Spitzer, tried to make the case it doesn’t matter whether Spitzer was set up.

I argued, or tried to argue, just the opposite. While what Spitzer did was a violation of the public trust, Langone’s comments suggest it wasn’t just the IRS doing its job that did him in. The biz press should be trying to figure out what Langone meant in his interview. (Would be a helluva scoop, Charlie, a helluva scoop.)

It was Charlie, after all, who in 2005 wrote in New York Magazine on the Spitzer/Langone feud: “Gesticulating with his big hands, he looks at me and says pointedly, “One way or another, Spitzer is going to pay for what he’s done to me and the havoc he’s caused in the New York business climate.”

So, let me ask the question again: What role did Langone play? Inquiring minds do want to know. I called Langone’s office and was told he’d have to get back to me. Yeah, right. I won’t be holding my breath for a return call. (Though if he does call, I’ll pass what he says along to you.)

Updated: See more on Langone’s respoonse (sic) here.

These two conditions are mutually exclusive:

1. The trouble Spitzer got himself into

2. Those who may have concurrently hatched a secret surveillance plan against Spitzer, to expose and to use anything they could find to destroy him. Motive: Spitzer was too hard on Wall Street crimes.


We are far from hearing the bulk of this story.

[seafan]

1. WSJ LawBlog: Langone, Spitzer and the CNBC Remark

Langone, Spitzer and the CNBC Remark




Posted by Jamie Heller, WSJ Law Blog
March 13, 2008

Here’s a dispatch from WSJ colleague Aaron Lucchetti

Former New York Stock Exchange director Ken Langone has a way of being in the middle of a big story.

That’s especially true if the story involves soon-to-be former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. Langone (pictured, left) has been criticizing Spitzer’s prosecutorial style since, as New York attorney general, Spitzer sued the Home Depot co-founder for his role in the compensation package of former Big Board Chairman Dick Grasso.

After reports surfaced Monday that Spitzer had used the services of a prostitute, Mr. Langone told The Wall Street Journal and business channel CNBC that the news confirmed his opinions about the governor.

On CNBC, he added that Spitzer went “to a post office and bought $2800 worth of mail orders to send to the hooker.” He told CNBC he’d heard that from “somebody who was standing in back of in line” at the post office.

The soundbite set off speculation — who was that person? On CNBC, Herb Greenberg, a columnist for MarketWatch and WSJ, wondered if it might be a private investigator. After all, Mr. Langone after all had made his dislike of Spitzer very clear. (See his blog post.)

But people familiar with the situation say Langone didn’t hire anyone to follow Spitzer. One of these people said Mr. Langone heard the post-office story from “a friend” who relayed it Monday, after the Spitzer revelations had broke.

Spitzer’s lawyers did not immediately comment.

[peacetalksforall]

2. Mail orders? The idea of mail order is that you call in your order or use the internet.

If this guy is talking money orders - how does a person know who it is for - you don't have to tell the postal cleark. You get blanks and fill them in yourself.

It would seem that if your standing in line at a PO and you don't want anyone knowing who you're sending to, you don't let people around you look at the label.

This guy has a mole in the PO or she and her sponsors are the moles? Or it's something else.