A list of recipients obtained by CNBC reveals that at least 12 banks, a Wall Street law firm, a hedge fund and a private equity fund were on the distribution list that got the minutes early.
The banks included Fifth Third, Citigroup, UBS, Barclays, U.S. Bancorp, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, HSBC, BNP Paribas, BB&T, JPMorgan Chase and PNC.
Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the most powerful Wall Street law firms, also got the email.
The email was also sent to King Street Capital Management, a hedge fund with $20 billion under management, and private equity firms The Carlyle Group and The Cypress Group.
CNBC provided no insights on who sent the e-mail early or why. However, Bloomberg did:
Brian Gross, a member of the Fed’s congressional liaison staff, distributed the March 19-20 minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting at 2 p.m. yesterday.
The release was “entirely accidental,” Smith said. “This was a list of professional contacts that one individual had,” she said. “This group of individuals does not in any normal course receive any information early.” The mistake was discovered this morning, according to the central bank.
How does one accidentally type and e-mail, address it their personal contacts, attach the minutes and press send?
Gross is a former staffer of former Senator Phil Gramm, a Texas Republican who was chairman of the Banking Committee from 1999 to 2001.Reuters added:
Long-time watchers of the U.S. central bank could not recall another incident when such a highly sensitive document was released a day early.
This isn't surprising under America's Government-Corporate Monstrosity, Eisenhower's MIC on trillions in federal steroids. Carlyle Group co-founder Bill Conway likes a PEU tilted playing field. How could an early release help Carlyle and its PEU brethren? And how might it help Brian Gross navigate his next high paying job with the GCM?
