Days at Wimbledon. Nights at U2 concerts. Flights aboard the Concorde.

And a dwarf to toss.

Wall Street brokers were willing to give all that and more to win lucrative business from Fidelity Investments, the worlds largest mutual fund company.

But on Wednesday those lavish gifts caught up with Fidelity, which agreed to pay $8 million to settle regulatory claims that current and former employees - among them Peter Lynch, the investor behind its Magellan Fund - had accepted improper gifts in exchange for business.

Lynch, a vice chairman of Fidelity, was among 13 employees accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of accepting gifts from brokers. Over the years, he had asked Fidelity traders to secure tickets from brokers to 12 concerts and sports events, including shows by the rock bands U2 and Santana and a pass to the 1999 Ryder Cup golf tournament, the SEC said. Fidelitys self-imposed limit on gifts to its employees is $100.

Lynch, who ran the Magellan fund until 1990, agreed to pay a fine equal to the value of the tickets brokers had given him over the years - almost $16,000 - plus interest.

“In asking the Fidelity equity trading desk for occasional help locating tickets, I never intended to do anything inappropriate, and I regret having made those requests,” Lynch said in a statement.

The investigation into Fidelity, initiated more than three years ago, trained a harsh spotlight on the high-priced perks that have long greased business on Wall Street.

Money managers like Fidelity direct billions of dollars in securities trades to brokerage houses that reap commissions by executing the transactions. To get fund managers business, brokerage firms shower money managers with expensive gifts. There is a lot of money at stake: From January 2002 to October 2004, Fidelity alone generated $2.3 billion in commissions for brokerages.

Under securities laws, mutual funds like Fidelity must seek out the best prices when they trade securities. The Investment Company Act prohibits fund employees from accepting compensation from outside sources who act on behalf of funds, like brokers who executes trades.

The SEC, however, cited not only Fidelity traders for infractions, but also senior executives.

“The tone is set at the top,” said Walter Ricciardi, deputy director of enforcement at the SEC. “If higher-ups request tickets from a trading desk, it may send a message to the traders that such misconduct is tolerated and could contribute to the breakdown of the compliance culture on the desk.”

The SECs complaint paints unflattering portrait of Fidelitys trading desk in recent years. Under Scott DeSano, the former head of global equity trading, Fidelity traders routinely accepted gifts in return for directing lucrative trades to brokers, according to the SEC.

DeSanos lawyer did not return a call seeking comment on Wednesday.

“Word is out that order flow is for sale,” an unnamed Wall Street broker wrote in an undated e-mail message to another broker in reference to Fidelity, according to the SEC complaint.

Between January 2002 and October 2004, the SEC complaint says, Thomas Bruderman, then a trader at Fidelity, received $450,000 worth of travel and entertainment from brokers who, among other things, helped pay for Brudermans bachelor party in Miami. The festivities reportedly included chartered yachts, lodging at the Delano, a luxurious hotel, and a dwarf-tossing competition.

Bruderman also received “thousands of dollars” worth of wine, a cigar-filled humidor worth $1,300 and 30 tickets to at least seven events, including the U.S. Open and front-row seats at a Dave Matthews concert.

Bruderman, who left Fidelity in December 2004, has denied the allegations. His lawyer, Thomas Kiley, was traveling in Africa on Wednesday and did not respond to an e-mail message for comment.

E-mail communications among the traders at Fidelity and their brokers, disclosed by SEC, suggest the employees knew they were breaking the rules.

In one, DeSano says, “What happens when I get fired for this?” A broker responds, in e-mail shorthand, “. . . no one is allowed 2 say anything . . . Last yr never got out . . . If someone talks, we kill.”

The SEC said the gifts influenced the way Fidelitys traders directed their trades. In December 2003, for example, Steven Pascucci, a former equity trader at Fidelity, asked a broker for courtside tickets to that nights NBA Celtics game. When the broker offered four tickets, Pascucci explained where to deliver the tickets and responded, “Thks. Buy 50K,” meaning 50,000 shares, according to the SEC. Pascuccis lawyer could not be reached.

Fidelity said Wednesday that the SECs findings make “no finding of financial harm to our shareholders or our funds,” but added, “we do recognize the seriousness of the misconduct found by the SEC.”

Thousands of women entrepreneurs in developing countries have started their own businesses in the past few years, many with help from local microfinance banks and nonprofits that issued them small loans and financial support. The concept has taken off, but there has been one key flaw in the model: Most of the women have little, if any, formal education and lack the management skills and financial savvy to take their business to the next level. On Mar. 5, investment bank Goldman Sachs («www.businessweek.com») announced it would change the equation by pumping $100 million into educational projects for these women over the next five years.

In an announcement at Columbia University in New York City, Goldman Chief Executive «investing.businessweek.com» said the company is hoping to create a new model of management education designed to help these women learn everything from how to write a business plan to market their own business. The company will be teaming up with a coalition of top business schools, including , , , and Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, to develop management education certificate programs at universities in countries such as Nigeria, Rwanda, and Afghanistan. The programs will be flexible and of short duration, ranging from several weeks to several months. “Not Rocket Science”

Dubbed “10,000 Women,” for the number of women it intends to reach by 2013, the program is designed to build on existing programs and create new ones by supporting partnerships between U.S. business schools and universities and schools in developing countries. The program is aimed at women, organizers say, because closing gender gaps in education and employment yields greater returns in economic growth in developing countries. For instance, Goldman estimates that improving female education in the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and another 11 developing countries can boost per-capita income by as much as 14% over baseline estimates by 2020.

Kathy Matsui, Goldman’s chief Japan equity strategist, says that educating women can boost gross domestic product in the target countries by 1% to 2% a year. “That is rationale enough for us to reach out and participate in initiatives like this. It seems like it’s not rocket science.”

Among the planned projects: Penn’s Wharton School will work with American University in Cairo to create a five-week certificate program that will focus on professional leadership, management, and entrepreneurial skills. Columbia Business School will work with the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to create two new certificate programs in entrepreneurship and management. In addition to the partnerships, the schools will collaborate to train professors, develop curricula, exchange faculty, and develop material for case studies. is teaming up with the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul to develop a certificate program and a training program for professors.

“This could be the start of something transformational around the world,” says Ruth Simmons, president of Brown University, which will work with the University of Cape Town Business School in South Africa to create a new business training certificate program. Better Access to Funding and Information

Women in developing countries face three main problems when launching their own businesses: access to finance, business education, and access to a network of mentors, says Maha ElShinnawy, a management professor at the American University in Cairo. For example, women own about 18% of the businesses in Egypt, most of which are supported by microfinance loans and have limited growth potential, she says.

ElShinnaway will help to recruit students such as Eman Yousry, 27, a visual artist who started her own furniture and home design store last year out of her home in Cairo. Yousry sells small coasters, pictures frames, and other home goods and oversees two employees, but she says she has had trouble getting her business off the ground because of her lack of business education. Yousry, who will attend the management program at the American University in Cairo this summer, hopes to learn how to market her business and expand it, perhaps eventually exporting her items to other countries.

“It is very hard because I have many problems, and I don’t know how to market myself, manage my employees, and manage my money,” Yousry says. “These are the main problems I have. I’m hoping this program will help me learn to run my business the right way and help me solve my problems.” The Mentors of Tomorrow

In addition to business training, the 10,000 Women program organizers hope to create a network of female entrepreneurs and advisers who can serve as role models for aspiring business owners. ElShinnaway says she hopes Yousry will eventually be able to serve as a mentor to women in the program and as an example for case studies the schools will develop on how female entrepreneurs in developing countries overcome societal challenges to become successful business leaders.

Such case studies, they hope, will provide examples that will inspire as well as instruct, ElShinnaway says. “That will be a powerful story that will tell others that like Eman [Yousry], ‘I can take my business to the next level.’”

HANOI: Vietnams state investment arm pledged to buy shares in an unprecedented attempt to halt a dramatic drop in stock markets, helping the benchmark index rise the most in almost 19 months Thursday.

The measure was one of a series of initiatives outlined in a Communist Party policy document late Tuesday designed to fight double-digit inflation and restore local investors confidence in a market that has lost about 34 percent this year in a liquidity crunch.

“The plan has psychologically boosted investors,” said Truong Duy Khiem, head of trading at ACB Securities, the brokerage unit of Asia Commercial Bank.

The State Capital Investment Corporation, which has registered capital of 15 trillion dong, or $940 million, had not started buying back shares Thursday, brokers and traders said.

A senior official of the State Securities Commission, the market watchdog, said Thursday that the start arm would “immediately” buy back shares.

“SCICs share purchase is a suitable solution given the current conditions and could provide positive support to the market,” Nguyen Doan Hung, deputy chairman of the State Securities Commission, said in a statement. He did not specify which shares would be targeted or the volume and value of the purchases.

The main Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, with a market capitalization of about $16.5 billion, rose 4.8 percent to close at 611.17 points on the announcement, having fallen by as much as a third in the past month.

The smaller over-the counter Hanoi Securities Trading Center, worth $5.3 billion, rose 7.9 percent to 206.49 points.

Domestic retail investors who dominate trading have stopped buying in the past month after a series of central bank directives to banks that dried up liquidity.

The central bank is grappling with policies to reduce inflation that hit 15.7 percent in February, the highest level in 12 years.

State Capital Investment Corporation officials could not be reached, but there was a statement on the organizations Web site saying it was “urgently identifying a list of investment portfolios, size and methods of the investment in compliance with the governments directive for implementation.”

The statement said the move was subject to final government approval and that the site would be updated with information.

State Capital Investment Corporation has a portfolio of about 800 companies and major corporations, both listed and unlisted.

The investments include stakes in the top information technology firm, FPT, the top dairy product maker, Vinamilk, the reinsurance firm Vinare, the construction group Vinaconex and Pacific Airlines.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange is the worst-performing market in the world this year and has fallen almost three times as much as the MSCI Asia excluding Japan.