The erstwhile King of Wall Street, who was toppled from his throne at Salomon Brothers by a 1991 Treasury bond bid-rigging scandal, spent the past decade in the shadows, working on minor deals. Looking to make a comeback, Gutfreund, 72, next month joins C.E. Unterberg, Towbin as a senior managing director and member of a four-person executive committee. The technology banking boutique has hit a rough patch and is expected to lose money this year for the first time in more than a decade. Gutfreund says he’s being hired for more than his connections. “I’d like to think 50 years of experience will allow me to offer some sound judgments,” he says. “And my suspicion is that there are some new, good businesses out there waiting to be discovered.” As for the capital market’s downfall du jour, Gutfreund predicts that “the ripple effects of a megacap company like Enron simply disappearing will be much worse than anybody realizes.”
