Jefferies may have deep pockets, but when they are wrong, they are wrong. And even they are smart enough to cut their losses.
JEFFERIES' 'PARTY' BOSS GETS THE BOOT
February 13, 2007 -- Jefferies & Co. sent a longtime executive packing last week as it continues to clean house in the wake of its involvement in a travel and entertainment scandal with Fidelity Investments.
The so-called retirement of veteran Jefferies equity chief Scott Jones was anything but a voluntary walk into the sunset, insiders told The Post.
Jones' departure was just the latest echo from Jefferies' ill-fated attempt to win business from Fidelity by showering the money management giant's powerful stock trading desk with $2 million in gifts and travel.
Starting in 2002, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission order, Jefferies stock sales star Kevin Quinn wooed Fidelity traders with cases of wine and lavish trips to the Caribbean. The bank even helped finance a raucous bachelor party in Miami Beach for a trader that featured dwarf-tossing and strippers.
The SEC tagged Jones - a popular, 24-year veteran of Jefferies - for his failure to supervise Quinn, levying a $50,000 fine and a three-month supervisory suspension. The firm also was fined more than $15 million, and Quinn was barred from the industry for life.
Jones, according to one Jefferies insider, was caught between a rock and a hard place.
"[Jefferies] could not really be seen as accepting that [the] equity division chief was not allowed to be involved in the day-to-day running of the unit, but they couldn't kick one of the original members of the firm to the curb, either."
Put that way, another vet said, "The writing was clear: Major firms don't have key employees just ride out suspensions. If you get nailed, you are usually fired on the spot. So his retirement was a classy way of handling things without lawsuits and further embarrassment."
The 49-year-old executive committee member was said to have no immediate plans, according to Jefferies executives who know Jones. Calls to Jones' Chicago residence were not returned.
A Jefferies spokesman would only say that Jones "decided to retire while serving his suspension."
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
