Each business day HedgeCo.Net keeps you informed with the top hedge fund industry news, opinion and insight from around the globe. From the latest hedge fund launches, to the impact of regulation, competition, and investor activism - we track the topics and people that make a difference to you.
Caribbean Net News – The trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s business told a judge that two Cayman Islands and Bermuda hedge-fund firms accused of profiting from the fraud are ignoring his lawsuits seeking a total of $230.7 million in damages.
Trustee Irving Picard on Wednesday asked the US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan to file default notices against the Cayman Islands-based Primeo Fund and Bermuda-based Alpha Prime Fund Ltd., court papers show. Two offshore firms sued earlier for a total of $1.2 billion also have ignored Picard’s lawsuits.
Caribbean Net News – The UK Serious Fraud Office is investigating sales of credit-default swaps and structured-finance products, including collateralized debt obligations, prior to the credit crisis, following up an earlier investigation into a hedge fund and a related British Virgin Islands-registered company.
The SFO is looking into whether banks sold such products with flawed valuations, said Sam Jaffa, a spokesman for the government agency in London. No specific companies or credit rating agencies have been targeted under the investigation, he said.
“We’re looking generically at what might give us a cause for concern or a possible lead for finding out more,” Jaffa said in an e-mail Monday. “There’s no suggesting that across- the-board valuations were flawed. However, how valuations are arrived at, what is bundled into the funds and how they were sold are areas of interest.”
Caribbean Net News – The trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s business told a judge he is in settlement talks with three Fairfield Greenwich Group hedge funds accused of taking $3.54 billion in fake profit from the conman’s fraud.
Trustee Irving Picard said he’s in similar talks with two funds run by Bermuda-based Kingate Management Ltd., accused of withdrawing $255 million in fake profit from Madoff’s investment advisory business before his Dec. 11 arrest.
Jamaica Observer – A Jamaican investment manager in the Cayman Islands has been charged in the collapse of four hedge funds based in the Caribbean offshore financial centre.
Robert Christopher Girvan was charged with forgery, obtaining a money transfer by deception and producing a false document, the Royal Cayman Islands Police Services said in a statement.
Girvan, 48, of Jamaica, made a brief appearance before a magistrate Tuesday but did not enter a plea. He was released on bail and ordered to appear back in court on May 26.
Caribbean Net News – Cayman Islands hedge fund Harley International Ltd withdrew $425 million from swindler Bernard Madoff in the three months before his arrest, according to a lawsuit seeking more than $1 billion from the fund.
The lawsuit on Tuesday by trustee Irving Picard, who is spearheading a global search to return money to thousands of defrauded customers, is one of several against funds that fed Wall Street’s biggest investment scheme over 20 years.
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.
