FIVE years after he was ignominiously ousted from the New York Stock Exchange, Dick Grasso could be forgiven a wry smile. His chief nemesis, Eliot Spitzer, has been literally caught with his trousers down and the Wall Street titans who backed and then sacked him have fallen hard. He may even get to keep much of the $188m (€120m) pay day that got him into so much trouble in the first place.

Grasso, who stepped down from the US exchange in September 2003, was back in court last week answering charges that he was vastly overpaid by the New York Stock Exchange.

The charges are now being pursued by Andrew Cuomo, New York’s attorney general. Cuomo took over as AG after Spitzer’s infamous encounter with a hooker at the Washington’s Mayflower Hotel. (Will those puritans never learn?) But Spitzer isn’t the only one to suffer The Curse of Grasso’s Gold.

At the time of his appointment, Grasso’s board of directors was a Who’s Who of Wall Street’s most powerful. In the intervening years, so many have lost their jobs, they could start their own support group.

Step forward Jimmy Cayne, former Bear Stearns boss, ousted after his bank was driven to the brink of collapse by the subprime mortgage mess. Cayne’s ousting came amid allegations that he had been playing cards and smoking weed while the company burned.

Then there’s Stan O’Neal, former boss of Merrill Lynch. O’Neal walked the plank following the biggest loss in the bank’s 93-year history.

Merrill has lost more than $8 billion in the subprime mortgage market. Thousands have lost their jobs thanks in large part to the stewardship of O’Neal and Cayne. O’Neal even managed to walk away with a payoff of $159m. It nearly rivalled Grasso’s.

But Cayne and O’Neal are just the latest to suffer Dick’s curse. Among Grasso’s handpicked crew were Philip Purcell, the former Morgan Stanley chief executive. Purcell was marooned following a mutiny in 2005.

Then there’s Maurice Greenberg, the former chief executive of American International Group, ousted by his board in 2004 and now under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. And how about DaimlerChrysler boss Jürgen Schrempp, who resigned in 2005 after a billion-dollar loss, and Martha Stewart, who spent five months in jail for lying to investigators over a share sale?

As the landscape has shifted, the unstoppable Grasso has fought on. Last year, the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court reversed parts of an earlier ruling against him. Now Cuomo will have to prove not only that Grasso’s pay was unreasonable, but also that he knew it was and took steps to disguise the fact from his board.

Good luck with that. Spitzer’s reputation lies with his crumpled clothes (if not his socks) on a hotel room floor. And Cuomo’s star witnesses - Cayne, O’Neal et al - are unlikely to impress a jury either way.

Grasso’s booty still seems a bit rich, but as his friends and enemies fall around him, his chances of keeping it look ever better. And who would want to get between Grasso and his booty? The man’s his own Black Spot.

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