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.
American Chronicle – A Los Angeles businessman has pleaded guilty to corruption charges in a pension fund scandal that began in New York and is heading west.
Julio Ramirez Jr.’s guilty plea to securities fraud, revealed Tuesday in New York, tightened the connection between that state’s scandal and the pension fund industry in California. The charges arise from Ramirez’s work as an unlicensed "placement agent" for Wetherly Capital Group of Los Angeles, a politically connected firm that has secured investment business from CalPERS and CalSTRS.
Napa Valley Register – The 2009 Festival del Sole will proceed in July as planned despite its founder’s guilty plea to securities fraud.
Hedge fund executive Barrett Wissman has pleaded guilty to felony securities fraud and is cooperating with New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo’s investigation of corruption at the New York State pension fund, according to numerous news reports.
A Dallas business associate of the Hunt family — the wealthy Texas oil family that owns the Kansas City Chiefs football team
Seattle Times – An official appointed to recover the assets of a prominent Manhattan lawyer accused of defrauding hedge funds of at least $400 million says he has safeguarded more than $100 million in assets, including an $18.5 million yacht.
The court-appointed receiver, Mark Pomerantz, outlined his findings about lawyer Marc Dreier and his 150-lawyer firm, Dreier LLP, in a report made public Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Dreier, 58, was arrested in December on securities fraud charges. He remains under house arrest while his lawyer, Gerald Shargel, prepares what he says is likely to be a guilty plea for his client.
Hindustan Times - Bernard Madoff, whose $50-billion fraud devastated individual and institutional investors worldwide, could spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty later this week.
In a court hearing Tuesday, defence lawyer Ira Sorkin said that Madoff would plead guilty Thursday in federal court in New York. The news confirmed recent reports that Madoff was expected to enter a guilty plea.
At the hearing, Assistant US Attorney Marc Litt said that Madoff faces 11 criminal counts including securities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, three counts of money laundering and filing false statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Litt said that Madoff faces up to 150 years in prison on the charges under federal sentencing guidelines, The Wall Street Journal reported online.
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.
