What happened to Whitney?

One of America's oldest private investment institutions, Whitney grew from a venerable boutique into a globe-spanning franchise with ambitions to become the Goldman Sachs of alternative assets. But in the middle of 2000, Whitney began an excruciating contraction under the guise of “back-to-basics”. The firm's dramatic ups and downs can be attributed to unfortunate market timing, but also to its charismatic and aggressive chairman and CEO, Peter Castleman. David Snow investigates