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.

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Minneapolis Star Tribune – Like most market watchers, last year’s participants in the Star Tribune Investor Roundtable failed to predict that 2008 would be a year of stomach-churning stock market declines, failed financial institutions, multibillion-dollar bailouts and credit markets as frozen as a Minnesota lake in January.

"I think everybody in the room knew there was more leverage, more speculation, more betting on the economy, but it amazes me that it got to this level," said Phil Dow, director of equity strategy at RBC Wealth Management.

But what the group of Twin Cities investment professionals did foresee a year ago was a period of unprecedented stock market volatility. The VIX index, a gauge of market swings, reached a record high this fall.

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