A series of Reuters stories on how Wall Street was working to weaken its regulations has won the business and financial news category at the Silurians’ annual Excellence in Journalism Awards dinner in New York on Wednesday.
Here are the business and financial honorees:
Medallion: Reuters, “Wall Street’s Way” by Charles Levinson.
This penetrating, deeply reported series of articles goes behind the scenes of Wall Street’s efforts to weaken securities regulation; shines new light on the revolving door between government regulators and the securities industry; and shows how the accounting industry stymied auditing reforms.
Merit: Financial Planning, “Deleted: FINRA Erases Broker Disciplinary Records” by Ann Marsh.
An in-depth investigation into the practices of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority questions whether the self-regulatory agency properly protects investors from abuses by brokers.
Merit: The Record, “The Chairman’s Flight” by Shawn Boburg.
Relentless reporting uncovered the scandal surrounding a sweetheart deal between United Airlines and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that led to the resignation of the airline’s CEO, the head of the Authority and New Jersey’s Transportation Commissioner.
Other business journalism winners:
Medallion in commentary and editorials: TheStreet.com, columns by Susan Antilla.
“Watch what Wall Street does, not what it says,” Antilla enjoins her readers and, heeding her own counsel, she does just that in a string of columns, built on solid reporting and trenchant analysis, that expose the duplicitous practices unscrupulous stockbrokers employ to intentionally mislead and, ultimately, fleece their clients.
Medallion in magazine feature writing: Bloomberg Businessweek, “How Trump Invented Trump” by Max Abelson.
Abelson delves into the uniquely New York world of the leading Republican candidate, profiling the people who work for him (his chief operating officer is his former bodyguard), challenging his claims of business success, and showing how he turns everything he does into some kind of victory. The story shows how glamour and desire — and the desire for glamour — can overcome any gritty reality.
Medallion in investigative and public service: Bloomberg News, “Loan Sharks: How Two Guys From Brooklyn Lost God and Found $40 Million” by Zeke Faux.
This journey into the new world of unscrupulous online predatory lending takes readers on a jaunt with the two young boiler-room promoters of an “advance lending scheme” that provides unregulated, ultra-high interest loans to people with shaky or no credit. Living in Puerto Rico as tax exiles after collecting more than $40 million for selling their business, Pearl Capital, they tell a tale that questions the sometimes slim
differences between the practices of Wall Street boiler rooms and mainstream firms such as Goldman Sachs, which offered to buy their firm.
All of the winners can be found here.
