New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Former Lehman salesman Matthew Devlin was charged on Thursday with participating in an insider trading scheme, after the New York City resident tipped off friends about 13 soon-to-be mergers.  According to the complaint, Devlin got the information from his wife Nina, a public relations executive.

James J. Benjamin Jr., who is a lawyer for Nina said that she was “completely unaware that confidential information about her job was being used as the basis for securities trading.  She is devastated by this terrible situation.”  Nina is employed by the firm Brunswick Group, and was not charged in the case.

Miami Beach day traders Jamil Bouchareb and Daniel Corbin, however, were among those charged, in addition to fellow former Lehman employee Frederick Bowers and a New York City attorney Eric Holzer.  They were arrested yesterday and charged with securities fraud and conspiracy.

In addition to the criminal charges, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed its own complaints yesterday against the same alleged ring which included seven individuals and two companies, stating that they made more than $4.8 million in illegal profits dating back to March 2004.

The SEC also alleges that Devlin, who was referred to by some traders as the “golden goose,” was given cash and other luxury items in exchange for the valued information.

Julie Scuderi
Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net
Email: julie@hedgeco.net

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Tags: magnus

Bloomberg - Hedge funds, on course for the worst year on record, will stem losses in 2009 as managers of equity long-short funds and macro funds attract investors, Peter Douglas, principal of hedge-fund consulting firm GFIA Pte said.

Managers of credit strategies may also outperform because a dearth of available credit from banks will create a niche opportunity, said Douglas, also the chairman of the Asia chapter of the Alternative Investment Management Association.

While the industry has lost more than a fifth of its assets from the peak of $1.9 trillion in June in the worst market turmoil since the Great Depression, hedge funds have on average outperformed global benchmarks. They declined 18 percent on average through Nov. 30, compared with a 44 percent slide in the MSCI World Index in the period.

“We had all sort of bad stuff going around, but in the end, you’ve been far better being in hedge funds than anywhere else, except for keeping your cash under the bed,” said Douglas in a telephone interview Dec. 17. “I don’t think that the deleveraging process is completely finished and we will see some more next year, but the bulk of it has happened already.”

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Tags: magnus