Now that Adelphia Communications Corp. has filed for Chapter 11, the analyst
who helped trigger its fall isn't around to watch.
Merrill Lynch junk bond analyst Oren Cohen has jumped ship and started at
hedge fund Triology Capital.
Cohen is best known for raising questions about Adelphia's guarantee of loans
by company Chairman John Rigas during a March conference call to discuss
Adelphia's earnings.
After more than half a dozen other analysts ignored the issue, Cohen asked
Adelphia CFO Tim Rigas about an agate-type footnote mentioning up to $2.3
billion in "co-borrowings" with a private, Rigas-family company.
Asked what assets backed up the loans, Tim Rigas stumbled over a response and
said he'd have to get back to Cohen.
That triggered a steep stock decline, which triggered scrutiny by regulators
and lenders, which uncovered a web of undisclosed insider dealings.
Though Cohen received a fair amount of attention, Adelphia didn't have
anything to do with his departure.
He had been talking privately for months about getting away from the travel
and pressure of Wall Street's "sell side" and finding something at a money
manager.
As for Adelphia finally filing for Chapter 11, Cohen joked: "My work here is
done."
