In response to a subpoena from the U.S. attorney's office for the District of Columbia, Allied Capital has owned up to hiring private investigators to obtain the phone records of David Einhorn, hedge-fund manager and proprietor Greenlight Capital.

Heretofore Allied had denied doing any such thing, over Einhorn's protestations and those of several others who also suspected that they were the victims of similar misconduct. Among that number would be Herb Greenberg, noted business journalist of TheStreet.com.

As in the HP embroglio, the suspicion here is that the investigators hired by Allied used pretextual tactics to obtain the private phone records - essentially, that they pretended to be Einhorn, Greenberg, etc. to get access to the victim's private documents.

While the name of the particular P.I. firm hired to do this bit of dirty work hasn't come out yet, as with the individuals involved in the HP Kona 2 investigation, it is just a matter of time. We'll see if prosecutors choose to go as hard after Allied as the feds and California AG have with HP.

And to you loyal, if sporadic, Daily Caveat commenters who just knew that Mr. Einhorn, poker playin', short sellin' goat that he is, was making it all of this up, let me officially, maturely say un to you...neener neener.

More on the Einhorn/Allied blood feud, from Forbes.

-- MDT

Labels: Allied Capital, BLX, David Einhorn, Herb Greenberg, Patrick Harrington, pretexting, Small Business Administration