New York (HedgeCo.net) – William Shternfeld and Benjamin Koifman have been sentenced in a NY court to 63 months each in prison for participating in a conspiracy to defraud investors of more than $18 million through a fraudulent hedge fund, the FBI reports.

Both men pled guilty to one count of conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud. Manhattan United States Attorney Preet Bharara said: “William Shternfeld and Benjamin Koifman preyed on the elderly to entice them into investing in their so-called fund.”

The fund in question is the AR. Capital Global Fund, LP. (“ARC Global Fund”), a purported hedge fund. Investor funds were wired to various bank accounts in Eastern Europe. The FBI said that the pair were expert cold-callers who solicited the vast majority of the funds from the ARC Global Fund’s victims, many of whom were elderly and lost most, if not all, of their retirement savings.

The ARC Global Fund received more than $18 million in investments before being shut down in September 2006.

In addition to their prison terms,  the Judge sentenced Shternfeld and Koifman, both of Marlboro, New Jersey, to three years of supervised release each. He also ordered each to forfeit $7 million, which constitutes proceeds from their crime.

Five defendants were previously convicted and sentenced for their involvement in the ARC Global Fund fraud. Yevgeny Shvartsshteyn and Igor Levin were each sentenced to 87 months in prison. Daniel Ledven, Edward Veisman, and Alan Fishman were sentenced to 57, 46, and 37 months in prison, respectively.

Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.net
alex@hedgeco.net
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership in HedgeCo.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!

New York (HedgeCo.net) – On October 31, 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted new rules under the Commodity Exchange Act and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 to implement provisions of Title IV of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The new rules requires investment advisers that advise one or more private funds and have at least $150 million in regulatory assets under management (“RAUM”)[1] attributable to private funds at the end of its most recent fiscal year to file Form PF periodically with the SEC.

The following are the new requirements for filing frequency and first filing deadlines for advisers:

For advisers with RAUM that is attributable to private equity funds, liquidity funds and registered money market funds, the threshold RAUM varies. Additionally, the specific sections of the Form PF that an adviser must complete depend on the amount of RAUM.

The Form PF is legally complex, time-consuming and requires voluminous data collection and preparation. As such, we recommend that those advisers who are required to file Form PF plan ahead and begin to develop an internal process for obtaining the required information.

If you would like to view the Adopting Release, please visit:http://www.sec.gov/rules/final/2011/ia-3308.pdf. If you would like to view a copy of the Form PF, please visit: http://www.sec.gov/rules/final/2011/ia-3308-formpf.pdf.

New York (HedgeCo.net) – Hedge fund services company Esposito Securities won a $1.46 million FINRA arbitration award against $6.5 billion Dallas-based financial services firm WFG Investments, Inc.

“We are very happy that the FINRA arbitration process was confirmed by the Texas District Court. We are gratified that our efforts to protect the firm and its clients were successful.” Mark Esposito, President of Esposito Securities said, “In confirming the Award the court showed that the FINRA arbitration process is binding and final.”

In June 2011 a FINRA Arbitration Panel awarded Esposito Securities over $1.46 Million in damages and attorney fees, along with pre-judgment interest dating back to October of 2009. The Arbitration Complaint alleged that WFG had recruited Esposito employees in violation of a contract between Esposito and WFG, entered into while Esposito was an independent broker for WFG, and induced Esposito employees to breach their contracts with Esposito. The claims asserted included breach of contract, raiding and tortious interference.

Esposito Securities, LLC, is a part of the Esposito Global family, and provides global equity trading services. A growing list of clients use our services, including registered investment advisors, mutual funds, hedge funds, ETF’s, closed end funds and unit investment trusts with trillions of dollars in assets.

Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.net
alex@hedgeco.net
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership in HedgeCo.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!