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.
Jamaica Observer – A Jamaican investment manager in the Cayman Islands has been charged in the collapse of four hedge funds based in the Caribbean offshore financial centre.
Robert Christopher Girvan was charged with forgery, obtaining a money transfer by deception and producing a false document, the Royal Cayman Islands Police Services said in a statement.
Girvan, 48, of Jamaica, made a brief appearance before a magistrate Tuesday but did not enter a plea. He was released on bail and ordered to appear back in court on May 26.
New York Daily News – Marc Dreier will plead guilty to all charges stemming from the $700 million investment fraud he is accused of carrying out, his lawyer said Monday.
Defense lawyer Gerald Shargel said Dreier will enter the plea May 11 to securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering charges. He wants to accept responsibility and show his remorse, Shargel said.
Until December, Dreier had led a law firm with 250 lawyers and celebrity clients, including Jay Leno and ex-New York Giants star Michael Strahan. He was arrested after hedge funds complained he was stealing from them.
New York Times – A hedge fund executive has pleaded guilty to securities fraud and is cooperating with New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo’s investigation of corruption at the state pension fund, according to court records unsealed in Manhattan on Tuesday.
Barrett Wissman, a Dallas business associate of the Hunt family, is the first investment executive to be implicated in the inquiry and will pay $12 million over several years as part of a settlement under his felony plea, people with knowledge of the investigation said.
BusinessWeek – A prominent Manhattan lawyer accused of peddling $700 million in phony securities to hedge funds will likely forgo a trial and change his plea to guilty, his attorney told a judge Thursday.
The defense announcement came at a hearing at which Marc Dreier pleaded not guilty to a revised indictment accusing him of money laundering in addition to previous charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit those crimes.
Reuters – Jailed Bayou hedge fund swindler Samuel Israel pleaded guilty on Monday to jumping bail in an episode in which he faked his own suicide last year in an attempt to avoid going to prison.
Israel’s plea had been delayed several times since August while he underwent medical care. He faces up to 10 years in prison on the bail jumping charge, said Judge Kenneth Karas in U.S. District Court in White Plains, New York.
Israel, 49, was sentenced last April to 20 years for engineering a scam that cheated investors out of about $450 million. The two sentences will run consecutively. Karas scheduled June 24 for the sentencing.
Bloomberg - Debra Ryan, the girlfriend of Samuel Israel, the convicted founder of hedge-fund firm Bayou Group LLC charged with bail jumping, pleaded not guilty to helping him escape.
Israel, 49, is accused of faking his suicide and fleeing the day he was to begin a 20-year sentence for his federal conviction in a $400 million fraud. Ryan, 45, entered her plea today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Margaret Smith at federal court in White Plains, New York, according to Herb Hadad, a spokesman for interim U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin in New York.
