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.
Law.com – Marc S. Dreier on Wednesday sent a confessional letter to the federal judge who will sentence him on Monday (pdf), describing in remarkable detail how he funded the once-admired expansion of Dreier LLP by committing frauds totaling more than $400 million.
Facing a recommendation from the government that he serve the rest of his life in prison but pleading for a measured sentence, Dreier, 59, said his seven-year downward spiral began with a simple theft from a client settlement fund and ended at the point where "I found myself running a massive Ponzi scheme with no apparent way out."
Dreier’s letter was submitted as defense attorney Gerald L. Shargel and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan R. Streeter sent competing memos to Southern District of New York Judge Jed S. Rakoff taking a dramatically different view of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
Minneapolis Star Tribune – A Prominent Manhattan lawyer has pleaded guilty to defrauding hedge funds of more than $400 million.
Fifty-eight-year-old Marc Dreier on Monday pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. The charges carry a potential prison term of 30 years to life in prison.
Boston Globe – A Boston law firm has filed a class-action lawsuit against a hedge fund controlled by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. for placing all of the fund’s assets with Bernard Madoff, who is facing life in prison for conducting a massive fraud.
The lead plaintiff is Lawrence J. Rothschild, a Needham businessman who invested about $1.1 million with the Rye Select Broad Market XL Fund, according to the lawsuit, filed yesterday in Massachusetts Superior Court.
The suit alleges that Rye did not explicitly say that it placed all of its assets with Madoff, and that the firm’s parent, Tremont Partners Inc. (also part of MassMutual), ignored red flags about Madoff’s activities.
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.
