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.
Bloomberg – Ritchie Capital Management and Thane Ritchie, the hedge fund manager’s principal, were sued by Barclays Bank Plc over accusations they concealed more than $150 million in investments made in the collapsed Petters Group Worldwide LLC and affiliates.
Now bankrupt, Petters Group, based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, was raided in September by FBI agents acting on information that the company may have cheated at least 20 investors. Principal Tom Petters, accused of leading a $2 billion fraud, is being held without bail in a Minnesota jail.
“Thane Ritchie made the decision to invest significant sums” from two of his firm’s hedge funds with Petters, at a time when those funds “were supposed to be winding down,” Barclays said in a complaint filed Nov. 18 in Illinois state court in Chicago.
Minneapolis Star Tribune – The local hedge fund industry has canceled its Winter Ball, scheduled for the Minneapolis Club in December, "due to volatility within the hedge fund industry."
The big shooters at Deephaven Capital Management, Whitebox Advisors, Pali Capital, plus other firms and their lawyers and accountants are a little stressed lately. And not all their clients are happy about their performance.
"In its place, we plan to host a ‘happy hour,’ as much of the feedback included the desire to get together, albeit on a smaller scale," according to a note last week from the Twin Cities Hedge Funds Care Committee. "We are in the process of confirming a venue and anticipate the location to remain downtown."
Falcone, 46, has been dubbed the "Midas of misery" for taking lucrative short positions in the shares of struggling banks including HBOS and Wachovia. He lives in a 27-room townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side bought for $49m. The youngest of nine children, he grew up in Minnesota and was a young ice hockey star dubbed "the phantom" for his ability to elude defenders.
Kenneth Griffin
The Boy Wonder As a Harvard University student Griffin installed a satellite dish on his dorm to help him trade options. His Citadel Investment Group, founded in 1990, has 1,200 staff and was tipped as the next Goldman Sachs, but its two main funds have lost 35% of their value in the market turmoil. Griffin, 40, was a high-profile donor to the presidential campaign of fellow Chicago resident Barack Obama.
James Simons
The Mathematician Born in 1938, Simons was a maths prodigy. He worked as a codebreaker for the US defence department in the 1970s and set up his Renaissance Technologies fund, which has some $20bn under management, in 1988. Known as a "black box" fund, it uses opaque quantitative techniques. Its core Medallion fund rose 49% in the year to September. Simons has a $600m charitable foundation.
John Paulson
The Sub-Prime King Low-profile Paulson made $3.7bn last year betting against sub-prime mortgages. A 52-year-old father of two, he was raised in the New York borough of Queens, gained an MBA from Harvard and has a $41m lakeside retreat in the Hamptons. His firm, Paulson & Co, manages $35bn and its advisers include Alan Greenspan. Reports suggest a bumper year, with the firm’s main funds rising by between 15% and 25%.
Minneapolis Star Tribune – Hedge fund manager Whitebox Advisors won’t let customers cash out, according to a national publication that follows the lightly regulated industry that manages money for affluent individuals and institutions.
The Minneapolis firm, which runs about $4 billion in investor assets through several funds and strategies, is drafting a letter to investors that explains recent investment losses and constraints and the terms under which investors may redeem some of their money, according to the Oct. 22 edition of Hedge Fund Alert.
The publication, which circulates among investment managers, said Goldman Sachs put Whitebox in a box earlier this month by requiring that the firm double the amount of collateral it puts up against margin loans used to trade convertible bonds. That puts Whitebox in a temporary squeeze because it must put up more of its own capital and devalued holdings against its margin accounts, which are trading accounts that use borrowed money in part to invest.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Former hedge fund manager turned ponzi-schemer Tom Petters is being sued by so many parties that the Minneapolis federal judge actually had to call a “timeout” yesterday.
Judge Ann Montgomery called the cease-fire after court-appointed receiver Doug Kelley pointed out that the dozens of mounting civil legal actions are interfering with their attempts to salvage some of Petter’s enterprises.
“We’re seeking some amount of breathing room to fulfill the receiver’s responsibilities,” law partner Steven Wolter told Judge Montgomery.
Petters multiple businesses, many of which are in bankruptcy, have been reduced to a single case. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Gregory Kishel gave the order to consolidate 10 companies into one bankruptcy petition so that they may be easily dealt with.
The civil suits against Petters are coming from multiple states, with the count now over 30. Wolter argued that both time and money are issues when it comes to trying to find legal representation for the companies.
Petters Group Worldwide filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month after feds launched a probe into the alleged $3 billion scam orchestrated by Tom Petters. He was arrested and sent to jail on charges on money laundering, wire fraud, mail fraud and obstruction of justice.
For now, all of the civil suits are frozen until further notice. No new suits can be filed at this time.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Holiday airline Sun Country filed for bankruptcy yesterday, just 3 days after the arrest of investor Thomas Petters, founder of Petters Group Worldwide, the firm that owns Sun Country among other investments.
Petters was charged with mail and wire fraud, money laundering and obstructing justice.
"We were forced to take this action as a result of recent events at Petters Group Worldwide," said Sun Country Chairman and CEO Stan Gadek. The airline said that it would continue to fly its regular schedule.
A federal judge in Minneapolis order Petters to be held without bail after a taped phone conversation revealed that the disgraced entrepreneur planned to leave the country. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Petters has stated that he plans to fight to be released from custody and maintains his innocence.
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Bloomberg – Hedge-fund managers Gottex Fund Management Holdings Ltd. and Acorn Capital Group LLC are among at least 20 investors the FBI said may have been victimized by a fraudulent lending scheme that could exceed $2 billion.
The alleged fraud was disclosed last week after an FBI raid at the Minnetonka, Minnesota, headquarters of Petters Group Worldwide, a closely held investment company that owns Polaroid Corp. and Sun Country Airlines Inc. Chief Executive Officer Thomas Petters resigned on Sept. 29, according to Petters Group spokeswoman Andrea Miller.
Petters, 51, had been running a fraudulent investment operation since at least the mid-1990s, siphoning off money for his own use, according to an affidavit by Timothy Bisswurm, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Bisswurm said in the affidavit that investors made loans to companies owned by Petters, believing the money would be used to buy merchandise and sell it to retailers including Costco Wholesale Corp. and Sam’s Clubs, a unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The purchases were never made, Bisswurm said in the affidavit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. Instead, Petters used the money “for his other business ventures and to support his extravagant lifestyle,” according to the Sept. 19 affidavit.
New York Post – Billionaire Tom Petters fancied himself the next Warren Buffett – that is until his empire starting crashing down like a house of cards.
The feds accuse Petters, one of Minneapolis’ fastest rising business stars, of secretly being at the center of an elaborate $2 billion corporate ruse, stretching over the past decade, while he hobnobbed with billionaires and movie stars.
Petters stepped down from his Minneapolis-based Petters Group Worldwide after federal agents raided his offices in several cities, acting on a tip from a disgruntled insider.
