Subject: The Story (Gone Awry) of a Private Equity “Stud”
Another Wall Streeter apparently fell victim to the perils of the Digital Age last week, when an associate from prominent Washington, D.C., investment firm Carlyle Group reportedly was forced to resign after a risqué e-mail he sent to friends became a chain letter among investment banks around the world.
The incident began innocently enough when a Peter Chung, who represented himself to be a junior staffer in Carlyle’s Seoul office, sent an e-mail to 11 friends boasting of the lavish lifestyle and sexual exploits he is enjoying in his new buy-side position.
In a May 15 e-mail, obtained by The Post, “Living Like A King,” “Chung” brags in lewd detail about how he gets “on average, 5-8 phone numbers a night” and how “at least 3 hot chicks that want to go home” with him every time he goes out.
He goes on, saying he loves the buy-side because “bankers pretty much cater to my every whim – you know (golfing events, lavish dinners, a night out clubbing).”
He concludes the e-mail by asking his friends to send him condoms by FedEx because he was running out of them.
The executive was forced to resign from Carlyle Friday, less than two weeks after his hiring, according to ‘Net news service PrivateEquityCentral.net.
Carlyle partner David Rubenstein did not return repeated phone messages. “Chung” could not be reached. However, in a May 17 e-mail purportedly sent by him to a friend, he denied writing the e-mail that sparked the controversy.
That e-mail quickly circulated to hundreds of eager readers, who in some cases added their own mocking commentaries. One reader called the e-mail “kind of a ‘pimpin’ aint easy’ version of the Uberconsumer from several years back.” Another marked it as “a lesson of why one should never put anything in print . . .”
The most biting satire, entitled “The True Story of a Private Equity Stud,” urged recipients of the e-mail to contact former Secretary of State James Baker, a senior counselor at Carlyle.