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A SEX scandal was the last thing Citigroup wanted at the moment - what with its business in disrepair, $45 billion in government loans to repay and a reputation languishing somewhere between that of termites and dry rot. And yet we have one, straight from the office of the chairman.
Dick Parsons, 61, is a revered figure in American business. A former lawyer who took over Time Warner after its disastrous merger with AOL and fixed it. A protégé of the Rockefeller family and adviser to both President Bush and President Obama. Earlier this year, he took over at Citigroup during the firm's darkest hours. If anyone could fix its immense problems, he could. He is one of a tiny group of African-Americans at the pinnacle of corporate America.
The business press has drooled over him for years, lauding his business and personal style, his knack for defusing the most volatile situations and then retreating to his vineyard in Tuscany, once owned by Lorenzo de Medici.
But now the New York Daily News reports that Parsons - married to the same woman for 30 years and with three grown children - has fathered a daughter by "model-philanthropist" MacDella Cooper, 32. Cooper's philanthropic work is on behalf of orphans and abandoned children in her home country of Liberia.
In a book published last October entitled Beside Every Successful Man, Parsons said: "I'm certain I would not have followed the career track I ended up following if it hadn't been for my wife." Her encouragement propelled him to the top. Last year he made over $10 million from Time Warner, but is taking only stock compensation from Citigroup until the firm is in better health - which given Parsons' evident abundance of energy should not be too long.
UNEMPLOYED bankers should take heart from the story of Henry Blodget. A high-profile analyst during the dotcom boom, Blodget was fined and barred from the securities industry after being charged with fraud. He reinvented himself as a journalist and blogger and this week raised a rumoured $5 million in fresh venture capital funding for his blog network, Business Insider.
FOR those with richer tastes and $300 million spare, Playboy Enterprises is said to be for sale. The media company is facing falling revenue and increased competition, and its public shareholders want a turnaround or sale. The biggest obstacle is Hugh Hefner, 83, Playboy's founder and majority owner, who wants to stay in charge forever.
