Bloomie’s Lawyer Digs Oil, Cigs, Japanese Food
The corporation counsel is the city’s top lawyer, and Michael Cardozo, who fills this role for Mayor Bloomberg, has a stock tip for you: diversify. According to recently released financial-disclosure forms, Cardozo — formerly a senior partner at Proskauer Rose — has amassed a wide-ranging personal portfolio, holding positions in more than 140 stocks and mutual funds.
Cardozo has stock in Benihana (smart: it’s doubled since last year), Winnebago (also up, but he shorted it), and shopping-mall sensation Build-A-Bear Workshop (where you make your own teddy bears; Cardozo shorted it). He’s also got stakes in several in major defense contractors (Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, L-3 Communications), Big Oil (Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil), and several gold-, silver-, and uranium-mining outfits around the world. Cardozo also holds stock valued between $5,000 and $34,999 in the Tisch family–controlled Loews Corporation’s tobacco subsidiary the Carolina Group (it makes Newports). We’d advise him, given his employer, not to try enjoying that investment in a bar.
— Geoffrey Gray