Credit Crunch Gong Show?

Credit crunch schadenfreude is coming up short.

First, we learn that there wasn't anything to that story about Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers getting punched in the face.

Now John Devaney, the Florida hedge fund manager whose fortunes rose and fell with subprime mortgages, says he was not booed off the stage at a conference last week.

The New York Post reported on Sunday that Devaney was heckled and booed at an annual conference for the asset-back securities industry. The microphone was then yanked away from him.

Devaney has responded angrily, releasing a statement late Tuesday that contends that most of the article's content "is completely false."

"There was no booing, nor did anyone leave the stage. This is totally fabricated," he said. "This type of false reporting is compounding problems that the finance industry is having in restoring confidence."

Because of his past bold pronouncements about the market and his huge yacht and holdings of paints by Renoir and others, Devaney was always an obvious target when things began to crater. Eventually, he had to sell the yacht, the Gulfstream, the Renoir, and even his home, as the New York Times detailed last summer.

"I've taken as much pain as virtually anybody in this industry," he told the Times.

His investors might disagree.

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• Credit Crunched: A Special Report on Wall Street Chaos