Our Daily Saab: This Man Gives His Last Shirt To Save Saab

The man in the weineresque photograph is Alex Mascioli, head of North Street Capital in Greenwich, Conn. Supposedly, he will come up with $70 million by this weekend to save Saab form the abyss once more. Not much is known about the man – Wait, I take that back.

Mascioli is a racecar driver. A luckless racecar driver, but it’s not for a lack of trying. Freebase says “he has the second most starts without a win.”

Mascioli also is a very private man: When you go to the Freebase page that praised his many attempts at winning car races, you find – nothing. His picture and the stuff about the many unwon races have been removed. The entry went on to say that “ The original description for Alex Mascioli was automatically generated from Wikipedia.org.” However, there is no page on Mascioni in Wikipedia. There was one, but it had been deleted. Reason given:

“Violates WP:BLP by noting a recent arrest without providing a reference.” And: “Three or four searches didn’t turn up this name in connection with any race car/Indy material … the rest is non-notable.”

Apparently, Mascioli forgot to purge the shirtless picture from Flickr – any guess how long it will last there? At least it’s a little tasteful: There is only a hint of underpants, the bulk (or lack thereof) has been discreetly cropped away.

A trademark search unearthes Alex Mascioli as the holder of the “Hampton Dog” trademark, apparently for high-end dog collars and dog leashes. It looks like that business went to the dogs: The USPTO lists the mark as abandoned. Mascioli also dabbled a bit as an auto writer – in the self-published genre.

His track record as a global financier remains murky. A search of deals finds very little. The alleged “employee owned hedge fund company” is listed as less than one year old. That edit was made by Alex Mascioli himself.

In my desperation, I called my friend who runs several hedge funds from a trading room discreetly tucked away in a strip mall in New Jersey. He knows everybody. Everybody except Alex Mascioli.

“Never heard of him.”

“It says he has a hedge fund.”

“You won’t believe how many people say they have a hedge fund. There are more funds than hedges! Gotta run!”

Even the faithful at Saabsunited have their doubts that the half-naked man has what it takes to save Saab:

“Google 500 West Putnam Street, Suite 400, Greenwich, Ct and you find that it belongs to a virtual office company called Regus . North Street Capital’s fax number, for example is the generic Regus one. While there is nothing inherently wrong with having a virtual office, from Regus website: ’Clients sign a one-page agreement and can move into their new space literally overnight. A Regus Virtual Office gives you an enhanced business image, complete flexibility and support without the overhead.’

And this Co is going to rescue Saab ???”

Our words exactly.

(Hat tip to you-know-who. The Swedish Chef has his day off.)