Did Sandy Play Dirty?

CALLIE SHELL/AURORA FOR TIME
Jack Grubman testifies on Capitol Hill Monday, July 8, 2002

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Grubman was a math whiz in high school and was a member of the debate team, marching band and National Honor Society. He listened to heavy metal and at parties would rip phone books in half to impress the girls. Proud of his father's brief boxing career, he would often cock his arm and make ready to land a punch on your jaw, says a former classmate, Jacob Zamansky. Grubman's first job was in strategic planning at AT&T.; He later became an analyst at PaineWebber but made his name at Salomon pounding the table for WorldCom in the mid-'90s, with the stock trading in the teens. As it rose to its high near $62 in 1999, so did Grubman's reputation, and his relationship with Ebbers got downright cozy Grubman even attended Ebbers' wedding that year. "Grubman was solicitous, fawning, like a groupie," says a source close to the WorldCom board. "This was not a natural friendship." And as Grubman's star rose with Ebbers', so has it fallen just as quickly.