Galleon: It was already astounding news when the billionaire hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam was arrested in October, accused of running the biggest insider trading scheme in the industry’s history. By the end of the year, the investigation of his firm, Galleon, had only gotten bigger, and in April it sucked in Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta, who soon stepped down. 
    Magnetar: Just before ProPublica won a Pulitzer Prize this year, it released a 5,900-word exposé on this cosmically named hedge fund. Magnetar created and bet against mortgage deals that wiped out about $40 billion when they eventually became worthless: ACA Aquarius, Vertical Virgo, Sagittarius and Draco are some of their fun names. The article explained how the firm helped perpetuate the subprime mortgage market by creating investments to bet against.
    Mistaken Moody’s: There was news this week that Andrew Cuomo is looking into whether Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Merrill Lynch and four other banks misled credit rating agencies. So were Moody's, Fitch and S&P simply duped into giving banks' deals inflated ratings? Not quite. For one, those agencies posted their models so that bankers could "reverse engineer" to get desired ratings, a source told the Times. Meanwhile, Moody's was already in a heap of trouble, thanks to a notice from the S.E.C. As for S&P: "Did the company make mistakes? I’ve never used the word 'mistake,'" a spokesperson said recently.
    New Madoffs: There is only one Bernie, but Ponzi schemers continue to make news. Minnesota’s Tom Petters was recently sentenced to 50 years in prison for his $3.65 billion plot (the second-largest in American history); Scott Rothstein pleaded guilty to his $1.2 billion scheme; and Miami’s Nevin Shaprio was charged soon after.
    The Orca: After the violent death of trainer Dawn Brancheau in February, activists criticized the private-equity giant Blackstone, who had bought SeaWorld and other theme parks for $2.3 billion.       
   Repo 105: The Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy examiner's report broke news of Repo 105, a spectacular accounting trick the investment bank used to fluff up the look of its balance sheet as it hurtled toward death in September 2008. "When I read this, I giggle a little bit," a former executive said at the time. Have other banks used 105-style tricks? Bank of America may have—and about 17 others. "Efforts to manage the size of our balance sheet are routine and appropriate," a Bank of America spokesperson said in March, and April.

Wall Street and Scandals... Will The Public Ever Learn?
All They Have To Do Is Remember The Past Year... 
    This year the deluge of new Wall Street scandals has been constant, fascinating and incredibly confusing. Helpfully, one tie that binds is that nearly every major accusation has been accompanied by denials from the accused, but beyond that things can get confusing. What's the difference between the mortgage deal named Aquarius and the one called Abacus? Did Moody's and other credit rating agencies fool the public, or were they fooled? Was Lehman the only bank that used a book-cooker like Repo 105? What, again, was Chooch? Here is a brief and alphabetized guide to recent scandals.
    Abacus: Abacus 2007-AC was one of the dozens of deals that Goldman is said to have built so that the bank and certain clients, in this case John Paulson, could bet heavily against the soon-to-tank housing market. Without it, we wouldn't have had fabulous Fabrice, an S.E.C. case and a lot of Senatorial fun.
    Chooch: This charming film about ne’er-do-wells from Queens who have a fun-filled adventure in Mexico was in the news again this April, when the giant private-equity firm Quadrangle settled pay-to-play charges, and denounced co-founder Steve Rattner. Why? The low-budget 2003 comedy was produced by the New York state pension fund chief investment officer’s brother. Back when Mr. Rattner was still running Quadrangle, the billionaire was said to have gotten in touch with an entertainment company controlled by his firm to arrange for Chooch to be distributed. Afterwards, the state pension fund invested $100 million with Quadrangle. "Mr. Rattner does not agree," a spokesperson said after the denouncement, "with the characterization of events released today."
    Cohen vs. Cohen: Steven A. Cohen is one of the most powerful hedge fund managers in the world; Patricia Cohen is the women he divorced more than 20 years ago. Late last year, she filed a lawsuit under the racketeer act asking for $300 million, accusing him of fraud and insider trading. She was sued in April by her own lawyer.
    Dead Presidents: Morgan Stanley was said this week to have misled its investors about mortgage deals known around the firm as "Dead Presidents," because they were named after the likes of James "doughface" Buchanan and Andrew Jackson. The deals reportedly had built-in features that "made it more likely" for investors to lose money when mortgage bonds were souring.