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Bloomberg – Sparx Group Co., Asia’s biggest hedge-fund manager, plans to start its first global macro fund, adding a strategy that was among the few winners in 2008 when an equities rout led to the only annual loss in its 20-year history.
The fund, which will wager on trends in stocks, bonds and currencies worldwide, will be sold to institutional investors in the next few months as Tokyo-based Sparx expands beyond equity- related offerings, President Shuhei Abe said. He declined to give the fund’s size, saying that and other details are still being worked out.
Bloomberg - Sparx Group Co., Asia’s biggest hedge-fund manager, will likely miss its asset management target of 5 trillion yen ($57 billion) by March 2011 because of redemptions and losses amid the global market rout.
The firm has cut costs to counter the biggest market losses since the Great Depression, an effort that hasn’t prevented its total assets under management shrinking to 753 billion yen as of Dec. 31 on a preliminary basis, or about a third of the peak of 2 trillion yen in August 2006.
“Realistically, it’s going to be extremely tough” to meet the target, Shuhei Abe, the chief executive officer of the Tokyo- based firm, said in an interview on Jan. 23. “There is still room to cut more costs, while we also have to prepare for other unexpected events going forward.”
Reuters – Suspected insider trading cases reached an all-time high last year, driven less by hedge funds and more by pillow talk between relatives and friends, the head of surveillance at the New York Stock Exchange said on Wednesday.
In a year when bombshell revelations rocked bank stocks, governments outlawed short-selling, and panicked investors brought on the worst market rout since the 1930s, there was much to tempt those with privileged information.
NYSE Regulation, the Big Board’s oversight body, referred 146 cases of suspected insider trading to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2008, five more than in 2007, the previous record year, and more than twice as many as in 2004.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – While the aftermath of the collapsed Bayou hedge fund may have left investors with nothing more than shock, the U.S. Marshals are trying to recoup some of the losses that were suffered. By selling Bayou’s failed investments, they are recovering some $115 million from the fund that once squandered over $300 million.
"You can’t believe some of the stupid investments these people made,” said Leonard Briskman, Deputy Chief for Business Management for the U.S. Marshals in an interview with Bloomberg. “The Bayou guys lost money during the late ’90s when almost everybody was making money in the market without even trying.”
Briskman is in charge of heading Bayou’s liquidation sale, in what has become a much more prominent role for the Marshals service with the rise of white collar crimes.
Investments aren’t the only thing being liquidated, however. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon ordered Israel to turn over his scooter and RV, the same vehicles that aided in his escape the day he was supposed to report to prison to start serving his 20 year sentence.
Also up for bid is the Tiffany & Co. watch that Israel was wearing. These things will help go towards the $150 million in restitution that he has been ordered to pay.
The U.S. Marshals Service is currently running a portfolio estimated at $1.7 billion that include 30 businesses.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
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Reuters- Former Samsung Group chief Lee Kun-hee, one of South Korea‘s most powerful businessmen, was handed a 3-year suspended jail sentence on Wednesday for tax evasion, but was cleared of other charges.
The court also fined Lee 110 billion won ($109 million), more than double the amount of taxes he evaded, but cleared him of charges of breach of trust and illegal issuance of bonds aimed at transferring wealth to his children.
His jail sentence was suspended for five years.
Analysts and experts had expected Lee to escape prolonged jail time because judges have often been lenient to South Korean corporate leaders convicted of white collar crimes on the basis that putting them behind bars could hurt business.
