Trio: $118m lost and the mystery deepens
Monday, January 18, 2010 : PermalinkThe Sydney Morning Herald – The mystery shrouding the collapse of the hedge fund Trio Capital deepens, along with the fate of thousands of investors and the missing $118 million.
On September 28, a couple of days before the authorities called it curtains, Messrs Liu and Richards grabbed control of the fund, when Trio appointed their company Astarra Asset Managers to manage the fund’s investments.
The fund already had poured almost every cent it had into a mysterious British Virgin Islands company called EMA International which, in turn, apparently was investing in overseas hedge funds.
But the investments were made via what is known as ”deferred purchase agreements”, which in layman’s terms means nothing was actually purchased, and if it ever was, it’s impossible to value.
In the couple of days between assuming direct control of the fund and before authorities moved in, Liu and Richards mysteriously extended the arrangements with the Caribbean hedge fund investor.
