EYEBROWS were raised when Prince Andrew's one-time friend, billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein, was released six months early from his 18-month prison sentence in Florida for procuring underage girls.

Now, City Spy hears, the reason for the brevity of his sentence has become clear: Epstein has been co-operating with federal prosecutors to bring two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers to trial. In a case that those in the know say will in turn shock, fascinate and repel Wall Street, Bear Stearns - once one of the world's leading investment, securities and brokerage firms - and fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, face charges of misleading investors in their subprime mortgage investment fund, which went bust last year. They are due to appear in federal court in Brooklyn on 28 September. The pair allegedly took $67 million (£40.8 million) of Epstein's money before the firm went bust and was taken over by JP Morgan Chase in April 2008. Watch this space!

How Lovells gets shipshape

ARE lawyers the new bankers? City Spy only asks after seeing an email sent by legal giant Lovells' Singaporean managing partner, James Harris, around the office last week. It reads: “I got my boat. What have others achieved? I'd be interested to hear.” Apparently, it was part of a firm-wide initiative called The Vision Board. Staff identify a goal, and whenever anybody succeeds in reaching it, the whole team, er, celebrates.

According to legal blog RollonFriday, Harris added: “I recently achieved my aim to own a boat — a dream I have worked hard towards for 10 years. It is important to promote work/life balance to help develop well-rounded individuals. In these difficult economic conditions, it would seem more important than ever to have something to aim for.” So here's to boats all round...

* SIGNS of panic in the travel industry, the sector hardest hit by the worldwide economic downturn? Each February, Earls Court hosts a Business Travel exhibition. Having sent out tickets galore to the last event — a friend of City Spy got five of them to his variously spelt address — the organisers have now commissioned the Audit Bureau of Circulation to pester recipients again, to confirm that they did indeed attend so they can boost their ABC certification.

* HEIRESS Margherita Agnelli has been charged Swfr15 million (£8.5 million) for services by a Geneva lawyer. That works out at about Swfr15,000 an hour. Nice work if you can get it.

* GOOD to see that Asda chief Andy Bond lists Mike Duke of Wal-Mart as one of his inspirations. Asda is owned by Wal-Mart, the president and chief executive of which is...Mike Duke.

* IN the same feature in Retail Week, Gerald Ratner is asked for his biggest influences. One is Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary “who says what he thinks” and, in O'Leary's case, has got away with it.

* MIKE Slade has another pop at the young pups in the property market. “The market remains a curate's egg and best left to experienced stock-pickers,” says the veteran Helical Bar chief.

Making the economy more of a laughing matter

TO the Royal Court to see Jez Butterworth's new play, Jerusalem, about a drug-dealer and set in deepest Wiltshire. One of the biggest laughs of the evening came from a more City-focused exchange: “Okay, Johnny. You lend us a fiver. I give it to Ginge, he buys a wrap. We split that, when I get to Australia, I post Ginge the fiver, he runs it round to you, you give him a wrap, he sells it to Davey who posts me back a fiver and I pays you back.” Replies dealer Johnny Byron: “It's just that type of thinking what sunk this economy.”

The Bubble gives Scotch bankers a wry smile

The Bubble — a musical based on the South Sea Company and the collapse of its shares in 1720 — makes a comeback at the Edinburgh Fringe. Written at the height of the dotcom boom and bust in 2001, the final chorus notes:

We followed the Bubble
We fell for its lies
It shone for an instant
Then burst in our eyes
We have to admit it was quite a
surprise
But we'll never do it again.

Less than a decade later, the irony of those lines will not be lost on any former Royal Bank of Scotland executives should they happen upon next month's performance.

* IT'S all very well, RBS continuing to sponsor Formula One, but do they have to attend in such numbers? This weekend, it was the turn of the state-owned bank's insurance division to enjoy the sights and sounds of he Hungarian Grand Prix...

* EVEN Prince Charles has been credit crunched. According to International Supermarket News, swiftly becoming one of City Spy's favourite reads, the Prince of Wales's organic food brand Duchy Originals is set to be sold to Waitrose, following a drastic reduction in turnover and profits in the last two years. The Prince's food firm, which focuses on running an environmentally sustainable farm and making donations to the Prince's Trust, is expected to be sold before the end of the month. Duchy's profits fell from £1.53 million in 2007 to £57,400 last year, as buyers turned away from its biscuits and farming costs rose.