UPDATE The man behind the fake Bernie Madoff blog that has created a following on Wall Street and elsewhere is Westporter Jay Berkman, CNBC said today.
Westporter Jay Berkman admits on CNBC he’s the “fake Bernie Madoff.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) CNBC/WestportNow.com photo

CNBC said Berkman, a marketing and PR consultant, started posing online as Madoff on Dec. 15, shortly after finding out that his father, a Florida retiree, had lost “a significant amount” of money in the alleged Ponzi scheme by the securities dealer.

“It was an emotional event, and that sort of drove me to try and do something creative about it,” Berkman told the cable business network. 

He vented that emotion by creating a caricature of Madoff and starting a blog, much like Dan Lyons created Fake Steve Jobs, CNBC said. CNBC broadcast an interview with Berkman and reporter Jane Wells wrote about him on her blog.

By Dave Matlow

Jay Kowalsky: The Fresh Market stores are “knock-down gorgeous” with competitive prices. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
Specialty food store The Fresh Market will open in November in place of Shaw’s Supermarket which closed Saturday on Westport’s Post Road East, a representative of the shopping center owner said today.

A 15-year contract with the 84-store chain based in Greensboro, N.C. was signed several days ago, said Jay Kowalsky, president and treasurer of Kowalsky Real Estate owned by the Kowalsky family of Westport.

Renovations to the site at 605 Post Road East—which at one time was Grand Union—will cost in the $3 million range, he said. In addition, there will be upgrades to adjacent stores as well as to the family-owned shopping strip on the opposite side of Post Road East.

Kowalsky disclosed that during lengthy negotiations with The Fresh Market, the family entertained proposals from The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company and Big Y.

The sign on the door said it all—Shaw’s Supermarket, the anchor tenant in the shopping center at 605 Post Road East since taking over from Grand Union in 2001, closed its doors for the last time today. Frustration with the repeated failure by the supermarket tenant to upgrade its Westport store led to a decision not to renew its lease, according to the Kowalsky family, owner of the site. (See WestportNow Nov. 11, 2008) (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

The Securities and Exchange Commission has reopened its investigation of possible insider trading involving a Westport-based hedge fund, reports said today.

Bloomberg News and The Associated Press said the case involving Pequot Capital Management concerned a matter closed two years ago.

The reports said the SEC is examining whether the hedge fund traded Microsoft Corp. shares on confidential information provided by a former Microsoft employee that it hired.

The SEC has not publicly acknowledged reopening the probe, and a SEC spokesman declined to comment.

Ted Hampe: future plans to be revealed. Contributed photoTed Hampe, longtime chairman of Westport’s HK Group Commercial Real Estate, has resigned his position and his partner, Matthew Keefe, president, will be the sole operator of the company, it was announced today.

The company will now be known officially as HK Group II, Inc. Hampe’s resignation was effective Dec. 31, a news release said.

The firm has experienced five straight years of continuous growth and is well-positioned to face the challenging future with 10 brokers in sales, leasing and property management, the company said.

Hampe, a graduate of Iowa State University and Harvard Business School, said he is not retiring and “his plans are yet to be revealed.”

Byron R. Wien, chief investment strategist of Westport’s Pequot Capital Management, Inc., today issued his annual list of predictions for 2009, forecasting a 33 percent rise in the S&P 500, gold soaring to $1,200 an ounce, and oil increasing to $80 a barrel.
Byron Wien: Sees market improvement. File photo

Wien, whose hedge-fund firm manages about $4.3 billion, has issued his economic, financial market and political “10 Surprises” list annually since 1986. His predictions:

1. The Standard and Poor’s 500 rises to 1200. In anticipation of a second-half recovery in the U.S. economy, the market improves from a base of investor despondency and hedge fund and mutual fund withdrawals. The mantra changes from “fortunes have been lost” to “fortunes can still be made.” Higher quality corporate bonds, leveraged loans and mortgages lead the way.

2. Gold rises to $1,200 per ounce. Heavy buying by Middle Eastern investors and a worldwide disenchantment with paper currencies drive the price of precious metals higher. In a time of uncertainty, investors want something they can count on as real.