Dick Bove, Rochdale Traders Await Rescue

From the New York Post:

Dick Bove’s firm is still hustling for a lifeline.

Sixteen days after a rogue trader rocked Stamford, Conn.-based Rochdale Securities, the broker-dealer, still hasn’t reached a deal with a deep-pocketed investor, sources said.

“If not this week then the next,” said one person familiar, noting that the firm was not under pressure to find a so-called white knight to buy it or inject capital into the firm.

While the search for a savior continues, employees at the hobbled firm can only sit and wait.
Regulatory rules bar Rochdale’s traders from trading stock — which means they are relegated to nursing client relationships and offering stock guidance until the firm resolves the lingering capital shortfall.

Ho Ho Homeboy Bove

Rochdale’s shortfall may be anywhere from $5 million to $11 million.

The firm, which does not trade using its own money but acts as an agent trading stock on behalf of its roster of clients, maintains net capital of about $3.5 million.

The 37-year-old brokerage was rocked on Oct. 25 when a trader, identified by sources as David Miller, made an unauthorized purchase of $1 billion worth of Apple stock — 10 times more than his client requested.

Miller, according to people familiar with his thinking, claims it was a mistake.

Rochdale, sources said, believes the 40-year-old trader was part of a stock-manipulation scheme that may have netted him $20 million in profits....MORE