Financiers and Sex Trafficking – By Nicholas D. Kristof
THE biggest forum for sex trafficking of under-age girls in the United States appears to be a Web site called Backpage.com.
This emporium for girls and women — some under age or forced into prostitution — is in turn owned by an opaque private company called Village Voice Media. Until now it has been unclear who the ultimate owners are.
That mystery is solved. The owners turn out to include private equity financiers, including Goldman Sachs with a 16 percent stake.
Goldman Sachs was mortified when I began inquiring last week about its stake in America’s leading Web site for prostitution ads. It began working frantically to unload its shares, and on Friday afternoon it called to say that it had just signed an agreement to sell its stake to management.
..................
Related video: Kristof on CNBC
- Berkshire Hathaway Takes $3.7 Billion Stake In Exxon Mobil
Warren Buffett's conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway owned a stake of about 40 million shares in oil major Exxon Mobil as of the end of September, according to an SEC filing on Thursday. Based on the most recently available holdings data, that would be...
- Why The Dow—quirks And All—is Beating The S&p 500 – By Jason Zweig
This coming week, the dowager gets a makeover. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which turned 117 years old this summer, will get three new members as Nike, Visa and Goldman Sachs Group replace Alcoa, Hewlett-Packard and Bank of America. Should you care?...
- Buffett Says Banks Cleared Of Excess Risk Pose No Threat To U.s.
Thanks to Will for passing this along. Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who oversees stakes in some of the largest U.S. banks, said the nation’s lenders have rebuilt capital to the point where they no longer pose a threat to the economy. “The...
- Pershing Square’s Q1 Letter
When we first announced our stake in JCP, the stock price increased to the low $30s per share. Shortly after announcing our stake, we were approached by one of the most well-respected private equity funds in the world who expressed an interest in acquiring...
- Recent Sell / Recent Buy - Mfs Multimarket Income Trust & At&t
Today I sold my stake in MFS Multimarket Income Trust (MMT). MFS Multimarket Income Trust is a close-ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Massachusetts Financial Services Company. I have to admit when I initially purchased MMT that I...