Boston Globe – A former New York University whiz kid whose Greenwich hedge fund cost investors millions of dollars was the fall guy in the fraud, not the criminal mastermind, his attorney said Tuesday.
Prosecutors rejected that idea, saying Hakan Yalincak, 22, lured wealthy investors to his fund and spent the money on luxuries including a Porsche. By the time he was arrested last year, investors had lost more than $7 million and Yalincak was so adept at bank fraud and check counterfeiting, all he needed was a computer and a telephone, prosecutors said.
Yalincak, who has been detained since his arrest last May, asked a federal judge to release him Tuesday, a request that was denied for the second time.
But the hearing provided the first acknowledgment by Yalincak’s defense attorney that the Daedalus Capital Relative Fund I was not a legitimate investment.
“He was a pawn,” attorney Bernard Grossberg said. “What happened here is, when the house of cards that was this hedge fund fell, he was left holding the bag.”
