UPDATE: HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – Najy N. Nasser, Chief Investment Officer of the Bahamas/UK based hedge funds, Headstart Advisers Limited (HAL) and Headstart Fund, has agreed with the SEC to pay $17.8 million in a settlement regarding a 2003 alleged late trading scheme.

Without admitting or denying the allegations, the civil settlement includes payments of $17 million by the defunct Headstart Fund Ltd (domiciled in the Bahamas), $200,000 by Headstart Advisers Ltd and $600,000 by Mr Najy Nasser, the Chief Investment Officer. This settlement will conclude the case brought by the SEC against Headstart Fund Ltd, Headstart Advisers Ltd and Mr Najy Nasser arising from Headstart’s historic market-timing strategy.

The Commission’s Complaint alleged that the Bahamas hedge fund, Headstart, acting through its United Kingdom investment adviser, HAL, engaged in fraudulent late trading and deceptive market timing of U.S. mutual funds through accounts at U.S. broker-dealers. Headstart has since September 2003 focused its business on other successful strategies.

Nasser said in response to the settlement, “Headstart is very pleased to have reached a settlement.  We responded to US concerns about market timing and immediately ceased this element of Headstart’s business in September 2003.  We have since worked hard to build up Headstart’s funds using different strategies. As we equalled or bettered our overall returns against our benchmark, we are especially pleased with what we have achieved.

"We have superb long-term performance against both the market and our peer group and have some interesting plans to grow Headstart’s investment business,” he concluded.

Alex Akesson

Editor for HedgeCo.Net
Email: alex@hedgeco.net

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Houston Chronicle – A London-based hedge fund manager and its chief investment officer have agreed to a nearly $18 million settlement resolving U.S. regulators’ allegations that one of its funds defrauded U.S. mutual funds and investors through trading practices such as market-timing.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and Headstart Advisers Ltd. on Monday separately announced a settlement in which the firm neither admitted nor denied allegations covering the period September 1998 through September 2003.

Headstart Fund Ltd., a hedge fund that had been incorporated in the Bahamas and is now defunct, will pay a $17 million penalty to resolve a complaint the SEC brought in April 2008. London-based Headstart Advisers will pay an additional $200,000, and Chief Investment Officer Najy N. Nasser will pay $600,000. The firm and Nasser are also barred from future violations of antifraud provisions of U.S. securities laws.

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Tags: allegations, bahamas, chief-investment-officer, headstart, hedge-fund-manager, houston-chronicle, investors, london, market-timing, mutual funds, nasser, provisions, regulators, securities-and-exchange, securities-and-exchange-commission, securities-laws

Barbados Advocate – There is a need for stock exchanges in Barbados and the Caribbean to attract new types of products and market activities.

Marlon Yarde, general manager of the Barbados Stock Exchange (BSE) has made the suggestion while addressing a recent function in Jamaica.

He spoke on the topic, “Strengthening Institu-tional Development in the Regional Capital Markets.

There are stock exchanges in Barbados, The Bahamas, Guyana, Jamaica, Eastern Caribbean, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Expansion must be done in a more co-ordinated way into the fixed income and debt market as internationally the market for these is even larger than for equity securities.

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Tags: bahamas, barbados advocate, bse, capital markets, caribbean, debt market, equity securities, fixed income, jamaica, regional-capital, stock exchange, stock exchanges, suggestion, trinidad