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Stamford Advocate – Debra Ryan, the girlfriend of Samuel Israel, convicted for his role in a $400 million fraud involving the collapse of Stamford-based hedge-fund firm Bayou Group LLC, was sentenced to three years probation for aiding his escape.
Ryan, a decorator who once rented a house on Highland Avenue in Greenwich, also was ordered to be confined at home for four months and not to have any contact with Israel.
Israel, 49, pleaded guilty in March to faking his suicide by abandoning his car on the Bear Mountain bridge with the words "suicide is painless" written on the windshield and fleeing the day he was to begin a 20-year sentence. He pleaded guilty to fraud in 2005 after admitting he hid $400 million in losses at Bayou.
CNN.com – The girlfriend of a convicted hedge fund manager who disappeared last year, leading to speculation that he had committed suicide rather than report to prison, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to helping him, according to federal prosecutors.
Debra Ryan pleaded guilty to "aiding and abetting Samuel Israel III’s failure to surrender to serve his sentence on June 8, 2008," according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
With the guilty plea, she avoids a trial but still faces up to 10 years in prison. But the judge indicated Tuesday that she will most likely face about four to 10 months in prison, federal prosecutors said.
Union-News & Sunday Republican – The girlfriend of hedge fund swindler Samuel Israel III, already accused of helping him skip out on a prison sentence, tried to send him $300 in jail, officials said Wednesday.
The cash was "secreted in the pages of a magazine" mailed to Israel last month at the Westchester County jail, county police spokesman Kieran O’Leary said. He did not know the name of the magazine.
The money was discovered during routine screening and did not reach Israel, O’Leary added. Prisoners are not permitted to receive cash.
The magazine was traced to the girlfriend, 45-year-old Debra Ryan of Armonk, and she was arrested on Friday, O’Leary said. She is due in local court later this month.
Bloomberg - Debra Ryan, the girlfriend of Samuel Israel, the convicted founder of hedge-fund firm Bayou Group LLC charged with bail jumping, pleaded not guilty to helping him escape.
Israel, 49, is accused of faking his suicide and fleeing the day he was to begin a 20-year sentence for his federal conviction in a $400 million fraud. Ryan, 45, entered her plea today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Margaret Smith at federal court in White Plains, New York, according to Herb Hadad, a spokesman for interim U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin in New York.
Seeking Alpha – Investors pulled at least $43bn from U.S. hedge funds in September as market turmoil led to unprecedented withdrawals, an analysis by a leading research house shows.
The data from TrimTabs Investment Research – which was to be sent to clients late on Wednesday – come as hedge funds are working to prevent far bigger redemptions by the end of the year, when many funds give investors a chance to take out money.
Withdrawals can lead to a vicious circle in the markets, as funds sell holdings to return money to clients, depressing prices and prompting further redemptions.
The chief executive of a leading alternative investment manager said he expected the hedge fund industry to shrink by 50 per cent in coming months – with half the decline coming from withdrawals and half coming from investment losses.
Conrad Gunn, chief operating officer of TrimTabs, said the $43bn in September withdrawals would mark “the beginning of what we expect to be a series of outflows for the remainder of the year. We expect October outflows to be larger.”
The industry, which manages close to $2,000bn, has experienced outflows during only a handful of months previously, including a small outflow in April of this year.
Denver Post – First, the money rushed into hedge funds. Now, some fear, it could rush out.
No one expects a wholesale flight from the nearly $2 trillion world of hedge funds, but even a modest outflow could reverberate through the financial markets.
To pay back investors, some funds might be forced to dump investments at a time when the markets already are shaky.
The big worry is that a spate of hurried sales could unleash a vicious circle within the hedge fund industry, with the sales leading to more losses and those losses leading to more withdrawals, and so on.
This is shaping up to be the industry’s worst year on record, with the average fund down nearly 10 percent so far, according to Hedge Fund Research.
New York Times – First, the money rushed into hedge funds. Now, some fear, it could rush out.
Even as Washington reached a tentative agreement on Sunday over what may become the largest financial bailout in American history, new worries were building inside the nearly $2 trillion world of hedge funds. After years of explosive growth, losses are mounting — and so are concerns that some investors will head for the exits.
No one expects a wholesale flight from hedge funds. But even a modest outflow could reverberate through the financial markets. To pay back investors, some funds may be forced to dump investments at a time when the markets are already shaky.
The big worry is that a spate of hurried sales could unleash a vicious circle within the hedge fund industry, with the sales leading to more losses, and those losses leading to more withdrawals, and so on. A big test will come on Tuesday, when many funds are scheduled to accept withdrawal requests for the end of the year.
