Pimco's Bill Gross, the celebrated bond fund manager who has the ear of Treasury officials, apparently still cares about awards.

Gross, 65, confessed to The New York Times' Devin Leonard that when Morningstar did not choose him for its fixed-income manager of the year award in 2008 (the honor went to FPA's Bob Rodriguez and Tom Atteberry), he sent Morningstar managing director Don Phillips a "very childish and immature" e-mail.

Leonard's lengthy profile on Gross, published Sunday, comes as the government is about to announce which money managers will participate in the program to relieve banks of about $1 trillion in mortgage debt. Pimco is among the firms eyeing a role.

In the fall of last year, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, led at the time by now-Treasury secretary Tim Geithner, tapped Pimco, together with BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and Wellington Management, to purchase up to $1.25 trillion in mortgage bonds.

The article brings up a complaint regularly directed at Pimco: why is the Federal Reserve paying the firm to purchase mortgage securities on behalf of the government, when the company is already a major buyer and seller of those bonds? Also, the article raises the question of whose interests Pimco is really looking out for in the bailout.

Though he provided advice to Treasury officials, Gross said he has never met Geithner in person. A Treasury spokesman told the Times that it speaks with "a number of market participants."

Gross also noted that Pimco's mortgage trading operation is separate from the one working on behalf of the Fed, adding that he can't visit that floor sans a company lawyer in tow.

"I said, ‘Merry Christmas,’ ” narrated Gross, recalling his last visit to that floor in December. "The lawyer said, 'Mr. Gross says Merry Christmas.' Right then and there, I knew that communications were basically severed. That's the way the Fed wants it." 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE