``The subprime market is pretty damn ugly,'' Tannin wrote in one e-mail to Cioffi. ``If we believe the [CDO report is] ANYWHERE CLOSE to accurate I think we should close the funds now. The reason for this is that if [the CDO report] is correct then the entire subprime market is toast.''
Tannin sent the e-mail from a personal account, not the Bear Stearns system, to the personal e-mail account of Cioffi's wife, according to the indictment.
That e-mail and others cited in the indictment ``are really absolutely the key,'' said Villanova University Law School Dean Mark Sargent, who read the indictment.
``They show that they knew the funds were cratering, that the bottom had dropped out of the subprime market, and their leverage was putting enormous pressure on the fund,'' Sargent said.
Blog time is so confusing, so I had to look up when in the basic housing bubble/credit crisis timeline this happened. It was right at the peak of the subprime implosion.