Partners in crime - I-bankers, insider trades, moles, strippers 
By Barney Gimbel, Fortune writer-reporter
September 22 2006: 2:48 PM EDT


(Fortune Magazine) -- In the summer of 2005, Elvis Santana was looking for some stock market advice. The 22-year-old assistant at Macy's had a stack of do-it-yourself trading books, a subscription to Investor's Business Daily, and about $30,000 saved up. But he still wasn't really sure where to start. So when his younger brother told him about a friend of his, a smart, polished guy named David Pajcin ("Jeff" to his friends) who had worked on Wall Street, Santana was eager to pick his brain. When they met at a Barnes & Noble in Brooklyn, they hit it off.

Pajcin, then a 28-year-old former Goldman Sachs analyst, was personable and self-assured, the kind of guy who attracts friends easily and girlfriends even more easily. He told Santana he was starting his own hedge fund and would be happy to teach him some investing basics. He even offered to share some of his stock picks. All Santana had to do was give him a cut of any earnings. Soon after their meeting, Santana opened a brokerage account. His first buys were shares of clothing retailer Casual Male (Charts) and call options of FedEx (Charts) -- both tips from Pajcin. Within a day his buying and selling had netted him a profit of $4,662.


Full Article on Fortune.com