This weekend a tight-lipped group of power brokers elected two new members into Kappa Beta Phi, Wall Street's secret society founded in 1929, Bloomberg reported.
The organization, dubbed "Wall Street's Frat" by the WSJ elected Barclays M&A chief Paul Parker and Leon Black, a senior managing director at buyout firm the Apollo Group, in a posh ceremony at Manhattan's St. Regis Hotel.
While the group's members aren't fond of talking to the press, there is reportedly a loose hierarchy of members. The group reportedly uses titles like "grand swipe, grand smudge and grand loaf," Bloomberg notes.
Bloomberg reporter Max Abelson was seated outside the lobby and relayed this strange anecdote. Here's Abelson:
"As the evening began, a reporter seated in the lobby watched people enter the hotel, where a night in the Astor Suite costs about $1,050. When a man appeared holding a photograph of the reporter in a gray T-shirt giving a thumbs-up sign -- a profile photo from his Facebook page -- the reporter promptly left."
Last year, the Wall Street Journal got rare access to a Kappa Beta Phi induction ceremony, even nabbing one of the event's pamphlets. Among those listed as the organization's "Exalted Avisory Council (Past Grand Swipe's)" were former Bear Stearns CEOs Jimmy Cayne and Alan D. Schwarz and Home Depot co-founder Kenneth Langone.
Inductees, referred to as "neophytes" by members, are traditionally required to sit at tables with long black table cloths, and, at least in last year's ceremony, are required to preform for the crowd. Last year, shipping magnate Peter Georgiopoulos reportedly performed a version of the "What a Feeling" song from the 1980s hit "Flashdance."