The woman claiming credit for alerting New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to the mutual fund scandal has a name: According to the Washington Post, the whistleblower is one Noreen Harrington, who persistently called the Spitzer’s office, urging it to look into some funny activities she became aware of while working for Edward Stern, son of business tycoon Leonard Stern. When she finally got through to a live person, after repeatedly leaving messages, Harrington – referring to herself as “that woman who was calling you about mutual funds” – agreed to meet with the AG’s office and spill the beans on the younger Stern’s Canary Capital Management hedge fund and its market-timing practices. According to the Post, the market-timing she observed at the Stern firm was only the beginning; in her next job, that put Harrington, who had questioned the legality of such behavior, into contact with lots of hedge funds, she realized the practice was rampant. The rest is mutual fund history.
