O'Reilly Doing Devastating Expose on Cantor Fitzgerald Tonight

The O'Reilly Factor/Fox News | truthkeeper

[truthkeeper]

Did anyone watch O'Reilly's opening segment? He's exposing an awful story concerning the shabby treatment of surviving family members of Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm that lost 700 of the 1,000 employees in the attack on the towers.

His guests were one of the widows, Linda Fiori, and a writer named MacDonald of Forbes Magazine. The firm CEO, Howard Luttman (not sure about the pronunciation/spelling, maybe someone can correct), has been all over the airwaves crying and carrying on the past couple of weeks about how he is desperately trying to help the stricken families. (I personally saw him on Larry King a couple of weeks ago sobbing away.) The man has been begging for business and donations, saying he's pledging 25% of future business for the families. He presented them as a close-knit, devoted, and caring group; "we're like a family here."

Mrs. Fiore, however, revealed that she has never been contacted by Luttman, even after she called his house and spoke to his wife (or possibly the maid; in any event she was told "I'll have him call you back."). She hasn't received a dime of money from Cantor Fitzgerald, and not one person from the firm came to her husband's funeral, even after she sent the obituary to them. Furthermore, O'Reilly revealed that all paychecks had been stopped four days after the attack. It doesn't look like any money is forthcoming, not even the bonuses these people already earned. Mrs. Fiore was desperate, and said she's been entirely dependent upon her family and neighbors who have been giving her money. She stated, "I don't want a handout from Cantor Fitzgerald...I just want a pamphlet or information stating what they will be doing about the money." (My paraphrasing.)

O'Reilly was plainly disgusted. He asked the writer what kind of man this Luttman was, and her response was not very flattering. She said he took control of the company while the previous owner, Bernie Cantor, was dying. She added that, as a result, he was banned from his funeral. O'Reilly: "Okay, I'm getting the picture about this guy."

I can't tell you how bad this story made this Cantor Fitzgerald CEO look. You'd have to see it for yourself...it's quite an eye-opener. (Watch the rerun.)

[Iowa Granny]

I only got to see part of the segment due to thunderstorms interfering with my dish. But what I saw was very confusing.

The widow asked the question: (paraphrasing)"We need to know how long the paychecks will continue". This young woman has been thru a horrific experience and she may not have been communicating very well,,,,, but I don't know of many places who continue to pay people after they die. I can understand that the widow should be expecting the commission checks to continue until all that is owed is paid,,,, but I don't understand an arrangement, except where royalties are involved, that a deceased employee would continue to be paid.

If someone can add some insite to my confussion, I would deeply appreciate it.

[Alberta's Child]

I saw a story in a New York paper about a woman and her two young kids who are going to be thrown out of their house because they can't afford to make the mortgage payments in the aftermath of her husband's death (I think he was a broker for Cantor Fitzgerald). They were asking for financial contributions, letters to the bank asking them not to foreclose on the house, etc.

I hate to be coldhearted, but the guy was an absolute idiot to leave his family in this situation. For all of his financial knowledge, he was too dumb to buy a life insurance policy to provide some financial support in case something happened to him.

Freepers, I'm going to give you one piece of financial advice. ALWAYS (especially if you have a family) make sure you insure your two most valuable "assets": Your life, and your ability to earn an income. In some respects the second "asset" is more important than he first, so a long-term disability insurance policy is a MUST.

[browardchad]

O'Reilly started rumbling about the money, and who was overseeing it, soon after September 11 -- "contacted at random" my foot!

There is a question here though: if there's no centralized coordination, how will this "billion" be fairly distributed, and will it go to "true" survivors, or phony ones? And how much will go as overhead to the charities?

[habs4ever]

He has a lot less partners to worry about dealing with, and a whole bunch more capital to payout to ...himself.The guy ought to offer the firm for sale, or wind it up, because how can they do the volume with all those salesman and traders gone?And volume is their business.

[LandofLincoln]

The guy makes 25 million per year off of the 700 employees sweat. Cannot tell what he can do for 700 employees all at once, but it seems like he is treating them the same way he treated the widow of his x-partner. My call, I have nothing good to say.

[sharktrager]

One point, not all bonuses are discretionary. I have had several jobs with defined bonus plans. It is essentially a way for a company to pay based on production.

[LandofLincoln]

His entire firm did not vanish, he has an office in L.A., Chicago, and London.

[Woodman]

I personally know 4 people from Cantor who died. It is worse than Linda Fiori is letting on. I want to know if there has been a list of Cantor employees who died, I think I may know many more than the 4 from when I used to be an FX Broker.

[poweqi]

Well,Yeah the insurance would be a luxury in the REAL world. The mthly. pyts. alone would be probably half of the majority's salary. Ya'll need to get off your high horses and remember that MOST of Americans do'nt make the money that I assume ya'll do. Besides Mrc. Fioni salled his house and left a message with the maid or wife. She wanted to know if her CHILDREN would be included in the ins. He NEVER called her back! What an A**

[cynicom]

All...I am amazed...Someone loses a family breadwinner and members here have time to fault their financial position. Perhaps it would be wiser to say nothing, for not one person here has walked in that ladies shoes. Shame...

[habs4ever]

They still have their London and Chicago operations, plus they've relocated to CT very quickly.He's in a nasty ethical bind, where he has overwhelming control, and capital, and does he fold up, or sell the shop and be a stand up guy? Plus, all those wonderful bonuses won't be getting paid this yr after all.He better make the right choice, as if he doesn't, Wall St isn't that scummy that they wouldn't turn him into a pariah and never have anything to do with him again.John Gutfreund left Salomon in '91 over their scandal, and he hasn't been seen since, so Luttnick would get no quarter from ANYONE.

[mystery-ak]

Without disclosing too much info....My brother-in-law owns a commodities firm in Chicago.
He used to do business with this guy on a daily basis.
He told me he has always been a slimeball and even hated to do business with him.
In fact one of my brother-in-law's employees was on the phone with a K-F employee when the attack happened(that's another story).
This man is worth millions....this was his home office...he has offices all around the country.
When my brother-in-law saw him on tv crying..begging for money, he was horrified...he knew he was slime, but didn't know he would be this low.
O'Reilly is right and needs to expose this fraud...like one of the victim's wife said...*he should get an academy award for his performance*

[Rome2000]

This Howard Luttnick character was on the tube asking for donations to something called the Cantor Fitzgerald Foundation the other nite. Anybody have any idea whether the families of his dead employees are the beneficiaries of this?

I have contributed to the WTC Memorial Fund, I suppose that employees of all of the affected corporations would share in this fund.

I really don't think that a company that lost 70% of it's workforce should be singled out, there are other companies that probably treat their employees worse.

How about a $100,000.00 contribution to Cantor Fitzgerald from the DNC?

[Woodman]

The woman is not a fraud. It is true and I know it for a fact. It gets worse than what she is even saying but I don't want to say too much.

[poweqi]

They ca'nt be ashamed cause they are DEAD!