24/7 Wall St. – According to a civil suit filed today by the Securities Exchange Commission in the Southern District Court of New York, John-Paul Rorech, a bond salesman at Deutsche Bank Securities, and Reanto Negrin, a former portfolio manager at hedge fund investment advisor Millennium Partners L.P., were charged with insider trading in credit default swaps of VNU N.V. VNU, now Nielsen Company, is a Dutch media conglomerate that owns Nielsen Media and other media businesses.

According to Scott W. Friestad, Deputy Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, “This is the first insider trading enforcement action involving credit default swaps.”

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New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Barclays Bank Plc has sued Chicago-based Ritchie Capital Management and the hedge fund’s principal Thane Ritchie, accusing them of concealing a $150 million investment in the controversial and now collapsed Petters Group Worldwide LLC.

According to the complaint filed on November 18^th, Thane Ritchie gave the go-ahead to invest “significant sums” from two of Petters’ hedge funds, at a time when the funds were “supposed to be winding down.”

Barclays is seeking $380 million they believed they are owed from Ritchie and 19 other related businesses.

“Barclays’ lawsuit lacks merit as a matter of law and is premised upon inaccurate and misleading factual contentions,” said Justin Meise of River Communications who handled Ritchie’s public relations. “We will vigorously defend this baseless action.”

Tom Petters, head of the now bankrupt Petters group is being held without bail in a Minnesota jail after suspicions of leading a $3 billion fraud. Although Petters is in custody, he has not yet been charged with anything.

Ritchie has claimed that they lost a total of $275 million in the Petters matter. Ritchie Structured Investments Ltd. And Ritchie Targeted Investments Ltd, the two hedge funds being targeted by Barclays, are ironically not listed on Petters’ debt schedule.

Ritchie set a precedent earlier this year when a Chicago judge denied a request by investors to open up Ritchie’s books after its Multi-Strategy Fund experienced losses.

Julie Scuderi
Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net
Email: julie@hedgeco.net

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