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The Tribune – The more than $8.8 million judgment awarded to clients of Jeffrey Forrest has been paid, six months after a financial regulatory agency determined that the former San Luis Obispo investment adviser had misrepresented a risky hedge fund as being safe.
Forrest, who owned WealthWise LLC, and Associated Securities, an El Segundo-based broker-dealer with which his firm had been registered to sell securities, abandoned their appeal of the judgment in federal court, according to Phil Aidikoff, a Beverly Hills attorney representing the group of WealthWise investors.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – International financial services provider TMF Group has expanded into boutiqe and hedge funds in Australia through the acquisition of Sydney administrator, Kingsway Taitz Fund Administration Pty Ltd,.
Recognised as a leading provider of boutique and hedge fund administration services in the Asia‐Pacific region, Kingsway Taitz has been top ranked in its peer group for the past two years by the annual Global Custodian Hedge Fund Administrator Survey.
"The increasing demand for our services made it apparent that the next phase of growth required the backing of a global fund administrator with strong financial resources." Brian Taitz, managing director of Kingsway Taitz said “This transaction provides the opportunity to align with a like‐minded global fund administration company that shares our values and culture."
“This transaction brings together two highly successful companies – one global and one local with complementary skills and values, and a shared focus on client service and staff development," managing directors of TMF Eric Koolen and Catherine Caradus, said. TMF has over 175 fund administration clients.
Eric Koolen, who has 20 years of fund administration experience, will lead the combined organisation in Australia. Brian Taitz will continue to be involved on a day to day basis for up to six months to ensure a seamless integration of the two organisations. The company says there will be no immediate changes.
Kingsway Taitz has retained Capital Advice as its financial adviser in relation to this transaction.
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Indopia – Britain’s leading entrepreneurs are considering to leave the country as a mark of protest against UK Chancellor Alistair Darling’s new 50 per cent tax rate, a media report says.
" Hugh Osmond, the pubs to insurance entrepreneur, is thinking about a move to Switzerland. Peter Hargreaves, the 10 million-pound-a-year co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown, the financial adviser, is looking at the Isle of Man or Monaco," the Sunday Times said adding," More are likely to follow."
As per the latest budget, from next year anyone earning more than 150,000 pounds a year will have to pay 50 per cent as income tax. The move replaced the 45 per cent tax bracket threatened in the pre-budget report last November.
Businessmen have warned that raising taxes on the rich would do nothing to boost the exchequer, as the wealthy can always find ways to avoid it.
Bloomberg – Liongate Capital Management LLP, a London-based firm managing $2.2 billion, plans to raise $500 million for a fund of commodity hedge funds.
The Liongate Commodities Fund returned about 0.1 percent last year and 0.3 percent in January, when it operated with the firm’s capital of $40 million, the company said in a statement and a presentation. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index tracking 19 commodities lost 39 percent in the 13 months through Jan. 30.
“It’s an inauspicious time to invest in commodities,” said Tim Price, director of investments at London-based PFP Wealth Management, a financial adviser. “In the longer term, a shift to an inflation bias from the current deflation would represent a huge opportunity.”
Reuters – A hedge fund manager, a brokerage trader and a financial adviser were charged on Thursday with insider trading in the stock of supermarket chain Albertsons Inc, reaping total profits of about $7.5 million, according to court documents.
The criminal complaints were filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan against Joseph Contorinis, a former employee at Jefferies Asset Management LLC, as well as trader Michael Koulouroudis and financial adviser Nicos Achillea Stephanou, whose employers were not immediately known.
Jefferies was not mentioned in the complaint against Contorinis. Firm spokesman Tom Tarrant said Contorinis left a year ago. He declined to comment on the charge or arrest of Contorinis by the FBI on Thursday.
