Marylin Star is the subject of a profile in today's Wall Street Journal.
The Journal writes: "By all accounts, Kathryn Gannon, the woman at the heart of Wall Street's latest insider-trading scandal, was ambitious. But when it came to high finance, she was definitely a neophyte."
Star/Gannon faces criminal and civil charges related to trades she allegedly made based on information the then Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Chairman James J. McDermott Jr. supposedly gave her regarding six upcoming bank mergers.
"An exotic dancer and pornographic-video star who worked under the name Marylin Star, Ms. Gannon during the past two years had scaled back her acting to launch her own production company and Web site. Yesterday, that site was temporarily closed down - it didn't say by whom - 'in light of recent events,' according to a message that accompanied a photo of a clothed Ms. Gannon."
The Journal continues: "It isn't clear now Ms. Gannon, 30 years old, met Mr. McDermott, Christian Mann, president of Video Team, which produced many of her videos, says in 1997 Ms. Gannon called to report that she was having a relationship with 'a big Wall Street man named Jim.' Mr. Mann says she said the man 'was quite rich and quite wonderful and she was having a good time and learning about the stock market. She didn't tell me that what she was learning was privileged information.' "
Mann is also quoted by The Journal, describing Star as "very ambitious, always very enamored of men who had money and power. She liked traveling in that circle. She liked staying in nice hotels. She was kind of a prina donna, bon vivant." Mann also quotes Star as saying, "Men are just here to carry my luggage."
According to sworn testimony taken by the SEC, Star had bragged that she had relationships up and down Wall Street - with bankers and lawyers. The SEC in its complaint says Star had an "intimate" relationship with McDermott for at least 14 months and that he paid her $37,000 in certified checks and wire transfers in 1997 and 1998.
According to The Journal, Star got her start in Canada, dancing in a variety of strip joints including spots such as the See-Saw Club and the Drake Hotel, both in Vancouver.
The Journal also reports that Star met Bruce Akahoshi in 1993 and eventually married him, though they got a divorce later, due to disagreements about her video career. Akahoshi, who works for a fruit distributor, also describes Star as "ambitious to the point of how to make money and looking for the quick schemes," but naive when it came to business. "I never knew she had any interest in stocks," Akahoshi said. "She was a pretty smart student in high school, but that's all I know about her intelligence." Akahoshi claims that he talked to Star in April and at that time seemed "scared" and was crying but wouldn't elaborate why.
