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Boston Globe – The trustee in the bankruptcy case of swindler Bernard L. Madoff has told a hedge fund business owned by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. to return money that it received from Madoff over the past six years.
Responding to a Boston Globe inquiry, bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard confirmed that he had sent a so-called clawback letter to Tremont Group Holdings Inc.
Tremont is among more than 225 former Madoff investors who have received such letters from Picard, on the grounds that the money belonged to other investors, because Madoff never generated any real investment profits. Picard wants to recoup the disbursed funds to have more money to repay investors for their losses. He has threatened to sue anyone who doesn’t return the funds.
Boston Globe – Secretary of State William F. Galvin is investigating Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.’s relationship with a hedge fund operation that lost $3.3 billion to admitted swindler Bernard L. Madoff.
Galvin, who oversees the state Securities Division, said his office is looking into MassMutual as part of an ongoing probe of investment firms that placed clients’ funds with Madoff. The division is examining whether MassMutual did enough to safeguard its customers’ money.
Springfield-based MassMutual owns Tremont Advisers Inc., a Rye, N.Y., hedge fund firm that sustained the second-biggest loss of all the confessed swindler’s clients.
Boston Globe – Investors of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff have filed 18 lawsuits against Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. in an effort to recoup $3.3 billion that its hedge fund group lost in the scandal. But the Springfield insurer is trying to distance itself from the ordeal and says it has no liability in the matter.
MassMutual maintains that the losses racked up by investors in its hedge fund group, Tremont Group Holdings Inc., are their own – and not the responsibility of the insurance company. Tremont had the second-largest loss among Madoff clients after Fairfield Greenwich Advisors, a New York hedge fund that lost $7.5 billion.
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.
Times Online – The Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, which oversees $38 billion, voted to fire hedge-fund firm Austin Capital Management after losing $12 million with alleged Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff.
The state pension board also decided at a meeting in Boston today to dismiss Ivy Asset Management, the hedge-fund unit of Bank of New York Mellon Corp., because several senior managers have left the firm. About $430 million in pension assets were invested with Ivy and $130 million with Austin, the board said.
Austin invested pension assets with Tremont Partners, the hedge-fund unit of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. Tremont placed money through its Rye Select Broad Market Prime Fund LP with Madoff, the New York financier accused of fraud in a scheme that may have cost clients $50 billion.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Investors in the hedge fund Fairfield Greenwich Group have sued the company after about $7.5 billion in potential losses stemming from ties to Bernard Madoff.
The investors claimed that Fairfield sustained “avoidable losses,” by not practicing proper due diligence and failing to manage their investments properly. The lawsuit, filed by Pasha and Julia Anwar in New York State Supreme Court on Friday, is one of many attempts lately to salvage some of the estimated $50 billion lost by Madoff through his infamous Ponzi scheme. The Anwars are residents of Illinois and had an interest in Greenwich Sentry LP.
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance is also facing a scrutiny from angry investors. On Monday, Arthur E. Lange of Connecticut and Arthur C. Lange of New York filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York, claiming that the company “breached their fiduciary duties by failing to conduct adequate due diligence and/or numerous red flags,” regarding their investments with Madoff.
Massachusetts Mutual has denied the claims and plans to “vigorously defend itself,” according to a spokesman for the company.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
