AUTHOR'S NOTE

     In 2003, Bill Ackman was interviewed as part of an investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the Securities and Exchange Commission into whether hedge funds tried to destabilize certain financial firms, including MBIA Inc. Through Freedom of Information requests, I obtained interview transcripts from that investigation and used the documents in writing Confidence Game . The exchanges between Bill Ackman and the government attorneys provide a fascinating dialogue about issues that a few years later would nearly bring down Wall Street: absurd levels of complexity and so-called financial 'innovation,' unchecked growth in the sale of collateralized debt obligations (later termed 'toxic assets,' ), questionably legal credit default swap contracts, conflicts of interest between debt issuers and credit rating companies, and the fragility of a system built around triple-A credit ratings. I have attached links to Bill Ackman's testimony below. 
    

                                  New York Attorney General's Investigation of Gotham Partners

March 4, 2003                                              

May 13, 2003

May 28, 2003

June 4, 2003

June 24, 2003 

          Securities and Exchange Commission Investigation -- In the Matter of Gotham Partners

June 5, 2003

June 18, 2003