At a time when the industry is striving to deflect intensifying regulatory scrutiny, the top 50 hedge funds contributed $ 6 million to candidates for the House of Representatives and Senate, and their political parties, in 2005 and 2006, according to the Centre for Responsive Politics in Washington.

Steven Cohen, the head of SAC Capital, Wesley Edens of Fortress Investments, and Kenneth Griffin of Citadel were among the biggest individual donors over those two years. They gave $ 105,450, $42,300 and $68,900 respectively, while total staff contributions from their funds came in at $192,200, $169,100 and $217,433.

James Lacier, a senior Washington research analyst at Prudential Securities, said: “Hedge funds are becoming more active, in large part because there are regulatory issues hanging over their heads. Also, they are looking for useful political information which can help to increase their returns as increasing competition makes it hard to sustain previous profit levels.”