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.
Denver Post – Bernard Madoff asked a federal judge this week to sentence him to as little as 12 years in prison after he pleaded guilty earlier this year to operating a massive, decades- long Ponzi scheme.
In a letter filed late Monday and made public Tuesday, Ira Sorkin, a lawyer for Madoff, asked U.S. District Judge Denny Chin to sentence his client to less than a life sentence.
"Mr. Madoff is currently 71 years old and has an approximate life expectancy of 13 years," Sorkin said. "A prison term of 12 years — just short of an effective life sentence — will sufficiently address the goals of deterrence, protecting the public and promoting respect for the law without being greater than necessary to achieve them."
Denver Post – J. Ezra Merkin, a hedge-fund manager who invested billions of dollars of clients’ money with swindler Bernard Madoff, has agreed to relinquish control of his funds to court-appointed trustees.
The attorney general’s office had requested the move in connection with its civil fraud lawsuit accusing Merkin of convincing clients he was managing their money when he was actually funneling $2.4 billion to Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
The deal, which is expected to be approved by a judge Thursday, is not a settlement in the case, the attorney general’s office said.
Denver Post – Topps Co. will feature Charlie Ponzi and Bernie Madoff in a series of trading cards due out on June, covering the "world’s biggest hoaxes, hoodwinks and bamboozles."
Unfortunately, scores of lesser Ponzi schemers will never stack in this deck.
Like Wayne Puff.
I don’t know who gives millions of dollars to a guy named Puff. But last week this 61-year-old founder of a New Jersey real estate company pleaded guilty to bilking more than $80 million from hundreds of people.
Denver Post – The U.S. filed civil and criminal charges against New York hedge-fund manager Edward T. Stein, accusing him of running a "classic Ponzi scheme" that moved more than $55 million through accounts while preying on acquaintances.
Stein, who controls Gemini Fund I hedge fund, DISP LLC and Prima Capital Management Corp., moved millions from at least 83 investors through accounts he controlled, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.
Denver Post – Hedge funds are being offered a deal to help the feds rescue the banking system: A low-risk opportunity to buy bad bank assets that could one day make them a killing.
But the deal could make for an uneasy partnership. The government also wants to closely police hedge funds — large investment pools that cater mainly to the rich — some of which have been accused of placing irresponsible bets that helped trigger the financial crisis. Such regulatory overhaul could reshape an industry known for secrecy and little oversight.
