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.
First Post – German prosecutors are investigating executives at the sportscar firm over allegations of share-manipulation.
Porsche denied any disclosure irregularities but many hedge funds and investment management firms were left wrong-footed after it made a shock announcement that it held more than 50 per cent of VW’s shares. German regulator BaFin dropped its initial investigation but re-opened it after claims that the incident was bringing the entire German stock market into disrepute.
Ex-chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking is among the Porsche figures being investigated by the German authorities over share manipulation claims. Yesterday Porsche’s headquarters were raided in the course of investigations into recent trading activities.The allegations revolve around the failed takeover of Volkswagen, during which Porsche took large positions in VW stock. Prosecutors allege that inside information was leaked in pursuit of the failed bid.
Citywire.co.uk – The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is to probe UK banks for evidence that complex financial products were mis-sold to consumers before the recession hit.
SFO director Richard Alderman plans to investigate the sale of complicated financial instruments like credit default swaps and collateralised debt obligations. The SFO has changed its tactics and will take a more active tack with investigations and will intervene to prevent future frauds, according to a report in The Times.
SFO staff are already investigating Madoff’s UK operations, hedge funds accused of over valuing securities, AIG UK and the collapse of Weavering Capital, according to The Times. The government has also asked its fraud taskforce to examine the collapse of MG Rover in 2005. And the workload is set to grow with the decision to look into the Keydata saga, as reported by Citywire this week.
istockAnalyst.com – The Securities and Exchange Commission unanimously endorsed the proposal amid widening investigations of so-called pay-to-play donations by private equity and hedge fund executives who jockey for lucrative fees to manage some of the more than $2.2 trillion in assets held by public pension funds.
"The selection of investment advisers to manage public plans should be based on merit and the best interests of the plans and their beneficiaries, not the payment of kickbacks or political favors," SEC Chair Mary Schapiro says.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market Bernard Madoff was arrested yesterday and accused of orchestrating a ponzi scheme that bilked some $50 billion out of investors, authorities say.
The founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities allegedly has been running the scheme for years, using new money coming into the fund to pay returns to other investors, keeping up the façade of an admirable performance. In his alleged confession to the FBI, Madoff took the blame, saying he “paid investors with money that wasn’t there.”
According to the SEC complaint, Madoff informed two senior employees at his firm yesterday that he was “finished,” and that his business is “all just one big lie,” and “basically, a giant Ponzi scheme.” He also allegedly admitted that the firm was insolvent and had been for years.
“We are alleging a massive fraud – both in terms of scope and duration,” said Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “We are moving quickly and decisively to stop the fraud and protect remaining assets for investors and we are working closely with the criminal authorities to hold Mr. Madoff accountable.”
Madoff, 70, posted bail at $10 million, backed by his Manhattan apartment and guaranteed by his wife.
"Bernard Madoff is a longstanding leader in the financial services industry," his lawyer Dan Horwit told reporters outside the Manhattan courtroom. "We will fight to get through this unfortunate set of events."
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
Washington Post – New evidence has emerged in an insider-trading investigation that the Securities and Exchange Commission closed two years ago without filing charges, raising questions on Capitol Hill about the government’s oversight of what was once one of the nation’s most prominent hedge funds.
According to documents, the hedge fund — Pequot Capital Management — secretly began to pay $2.1 million to a key witness in the case last spring, just three months after several senators called on the SEC to reopen its investigation.
Top Republicans on the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees asked Pequot’s chairman this week to provide records related to the payments. The FBI is also looking into the matter, according to people familiar with the case.
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.
Montreal Gazette- IndyMac Bank is under investigation by the FBI for possible fraud involving home loans made to risky borrowers, the Associated Press reported yesterday, citing an unnamed law enforcement official.
The report said it was not immediately clear how long the FBI’s probe of the bank has been ongoing but the probe is focused on the company and not individuals who ran the thrift institution.
U.S. banking regulators seized mortgage lender IndyMac Friday after withdrawals by panicked depositors led to the third-largest banking failure in U.S. history.
Ventura County Star- More than 400 real estate industry players have been indicted since March, — including dozens in the last two days — in a Justice Department crackdown on incidents of mortgage fraud that stem from the country’s housing crisis.
The FBI put the losses to home-owners and other borrowers who were victims in the schemes at more than $1 billion.
"Mortgage fraud poses a significant threat to our economy, to the stability of our nation’s housing markets and to the peace of mind of millions of American homeowners," Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip said at an afternoon news conference.
Philadelphia Daily News- A hedge-fund swindler who was supposed to be driving himself to prison abandoned his car on a bridge with the phrase "Suicide is Painless" scrawled on its hood, but no body has been found in the river below – and the victims of his fraud say they doubt he killed himself.
The FBI, too, is skeptical, saying it is "actively looking" for the missing man, Samuel Israel III.
Israel, 48, a co-founder and chief executive of the now-collapsed Bayou hedge funds, was sentenced in April to 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy and fraud, to begin Monday afternoon. He was also ordered to pay $300 million to his victims.
Ross Intelisano, who represents 20 investors who lost $25 million, said yesterday his clients are skeptical about any Israel suicide.
West Palm Beach (Hedge Co.Net)- Kirk Sean Wright, CEO of hedge fund International Management Associates of Atlanta hanged himself in a Union City jail cell Saturday night.
Wright was convicted by a federal jury on 47 counts of mail fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, stemming from a scam run through his hedge fund, International Management Associates. He collected between $115 million and $185 million for his hedge fund from at least 500 investors since 1997.
The FBI in association with the IRS, DOJ and SEC investigated why requests by current and former NFL players for their funds were ignored.
Wright maintained his innocence until the end, contending that simple mis-management was to blame for his investors’ losses.
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