Aleksey Vayner's attempt to quell distribution of his "Impossible Is Nothing" video won a small victory yesterday and then suffered a quick reversal. After his video became an overnight viral sensation-first making the rounds in emails forwarded around investment banks and then on blogs-Vayner initially removed the video from his website.

When the blog IvyGate responded by uploading the video to YouTube, Vayner sent cease and desist letters to IvyGate and other websites which embedded the video (including DealBreaker). He also asked YouTube to remove the video. Last night IvyGate received an email from YouTube, notifying them that they were indeed going to remove the video. Vayner probably went to be last night feeling like a champ.

IvyGate, however, wasn't going out like that. It lawyered up and got reassurances that posting the video would count as "fair use." And now the video is back up, this time at Veoh.

Calling Aleksey Vayner's Bluff [IvyGate]

The Aleksey Vayner story continued to erupt today, splattering its hot flow all over the internets and even onto a real, inky fingers newspaper. Here's a quick rundown of all the latest news on Aleksey Vayner.

• Under the name Aleksey Garber, he was the subject of a withering profile in Yale's Rumpus. [IvyGate]

• The New York Sun runs an article on the Vayner video. Not much by way of new facts here but notable because the story has now officially broken out of the confines of the internet and email forwards. [New York Sun]

• Vayner is sending out cease and desist letters to bloggers posting his photos and video. [IvyGate]

• A woman who seems to be Vayner's sister was profiled on CNN Money a year and a half ago. She's a real-estate investor and seems as enamored as Aleksey with motivational speaking. [CNNMoney.com]

• IvyGate calls Vayner the "Lord of Lies" in an item citing "Vayner's fraudulent investment firm," "Vayner's fraudulent charity," and "Vayner's fraudulent book about the Holocaust." Here's what they say. The firm: might not exist at all, Aleksey seems to lack proper licensing and may have plagiarized the firm's website. The charity: probably totally bogus and sports a seal of approval from a charity rating organization that it never earned and has been asked to remove. The book: entire section seems copied from an encyclopedia. [Ivy Gate]

• Aleksey Vayner is super popular...on FaceBook. He's got 743 friends!

Anyone know Aleksey? Or have more stories about him? Send them to tips (at) dealbreaker (dot) com.

[Previous DealBreaker coverage of Aleksey Vayner]

Well, that was a close call. For a few moments we were worried you might miss out on Aleksey Vayner's now world-famous (or at least Wall Street famous) video "Impossible Is Nothing." His site went down and the video with it. Aleksey may have had second thoughts. Or maybe all the traffic it was getting crashed it.

No need to worry. The video is back, courtesy of the gang at IvyGate who were thoughtful enough to preserve the video on YouTube. (Link here.)

You might also want to check out the website for his, uhm, "hedge fund." As commenter Mike pointed out, the "Our Philosophy" section is a work of wonder. The key to success at "Vayner Capital Management, LLC" is that they will "Never Lose Money."

And one last note: we still cannot get over the nagging feeling that somehow this is an elaborate set up. We've had confirmation from a Yalie that he's for real but still. The name is so Dickensian-perfect it's unbelievable. Vayner? Vain-er?

Managing money for a major university is like square dancing in a minefield. Faculty members absurdly act like they own universities, and often exploit their institutions for short-term, personal and idiosyncratic goals-not exactly a good recipe for smart investing. Calls to divest from whatever country the professoriate has decided to hate lately are a good example here. It's probably just not worth the trouble if you a big time investment adviser to take the job. Why not go work for a hedge fund?

Which may be what University of Texas endowment manager Bob Boldt was thinking when he resigned recently. Paul Kedrosky sums up the situation nicely:

Only in the deranged world of universities would an 8.5% annual rate of return on a $10+billion portfolio have you on the outs with your bosses. It has happened again, however. Bob Boldt, the head of University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO) resigned, effective last Friday, to return to the private sector.

Boldt resigns from the UT Investment Management Co. [Associated Press in the Houston Chronicle]

Another Endowment Manager Bites the Dust [Infectious Greed]