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Who Shot Wall Street's 'Sheriff'?

03/12/08 - 04:00 PM EDT

Mark DeCambre

As attorney general, Spitzer charged Langone with misleading directors about a $187 million severance package pocketed by Grasso when he left the organization. "He destroyed reputations of people who had good reputations and deserved reputations," Langone told CNBC on Tuesday, after hearing about Spitzer's alleged dalliances.

Hypocrisy is not a criminal offense, and many of those reveling in Spitzer's sorry situation do not have skeleton-free closets. But the fact of the matter is that Spitzer publicly portrayed a pristine image, while behind closed doors allegedly lived a lifestyle at odds with standards he upheld.

"We all have our private hell. I hope his private hell is hotter than anybody else's," Langone continued.

Known for hardball tactics and lobbing threatening calls to power players from Langone to former Goldman Sachs GS Chairman John Whitehead, it seemed only a matter of time before Spitzer got his comeuppance.

Spitzer seemed to always live a life above the fray and in some ways must have viewed himself as better than the people he sought to prosecute as attorney general and preside over as governor.

Edgar Allan Poe, in a macabre tale titled Cask of the Amontillado, highlights a Latin phrase, Nemo me impune lacessit that best describes Wall Street's ultimate take on Spitzer's fall: "No one touches me with impunity," the phrase translates.

Note: To see a mini-list of Spitzer's well-known targets, check out the The Eliot Spitzer Revenge Portfolio at Stocikpickr.com. In addition to NYSE Euronext, and AIG, the list includes Citigroup C, Merrill Lynch MER and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia MSO, among others.

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