Tuesday, November 15, 2011

NY Hedge Fund Charged With Securities Fraud

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Securities and Exchange Commission har laddat New-York-baserade Hedgefond ThinkStrategy Capital Management och dess enda verkst?llande direkt?r med v?rdepapper bedr?geri.

Chetan Kapur har anklagats f?r ?verdriver fondens resultat och ge falska f?retagsinformation till investerare i ?ver sju ?r, enligt instruktionen SEK p? torsdag.

Klagom?let h?vdade ocks? att f?retaget investerat i hedgefonder som var inblandade i Ponzi system eller andra allvarliga bedr?gerier, trots informera investerare att dessa medel valdes efter en rigor?s vederb?rlig aktsamhet process.

Vid sin h?jdpunkt 2008 lyckades ThinkStrategy cirka 520 miljoner dollar i tillg?ngar.

SEK klagom?l mot ThinkStrategy kapital

SEC Charges Feeder Funds in Petters Ponzi Scam

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Two Minnesota-based hedge fund managers and their firm have been charged with helping Minnesota businessman Thomas Petters carry out his multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme.

The SEC announced in a complaint Wednesday that James Fry, Michelle Palm, and Fry’s firm Arrowhead Capital Management were charged with securities violations.

The SEC alleged that Fry and Palm, and Arrowhead Capital invested more than $600 billion in hedge fund assets with Petters while collecting more than $42 million in fees.

The agency also alleged Fry, Palm, and Arrowhead falsely assured investors and potential investors that their money would be safe through certain collateral accounts.

The agency then alleged that Fry, Palm, and Arrowhead hid Petters’ inability to pay back investors by entering into secret note extensions with Petters.

Petters was sentenced in April 2010 to 50 years in prison for orchestrating the scam that took in $3.7 billion in investor money that was supposed to be placed in funds investing in asset-backed paper, the assets being large-ticket appliances. But the transactions and the paper turned out to be fictitious.

Palm pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud and one count of making false statements to SEC staff during investigative testimony.

Fry pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements to SEC staff during investigative testimony. He is scheduled to go on trial in February.

SEC Complaint Against Funds in Petters Ponzi Scam

Monday, November 14, 2011

Paragon Opens Maiden Fund to Institutional Investors

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AppId is over the quota
New York-based event-driven hedge fund Paragon Capital Advisors has open its maiden fund to institutions.

The flagship fund wants to reach its goal of an initial $100 million investment capacity by expanding its target investors to include pensions, fund-of-funds and endowments, according to HFM Week.

The fund opened in 2005, and currently has $20 million in assets under management.

Go to HFM Week article

Wall Street Veteran Writes ' New Chapter ' as TV Personality

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Stephanie Ruhle finds the challenge of being a news personality even more intense than her previous jobs dealing with hedge fund clients for global financial giants Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank.

The 35-year-old Ruhle is the new co-anchor of Bloomberg Television's morning show, "Inside Track," having started on the job last month. She joins Bloomberg TV vet Erik Schatzker, Sara Eisen, and Scarlet Fu.

"Working in television and television news, it's a double-edged sword in that you're constantly involved in world markets and every piece of news that hits is important to you," Ruhle told Hedgefund.net in a recent interview. "It's an exciting part of the job but it also makes you basically work 24 hours a day."

Ruhle also sees this as a "new chapter" in her life, one she didn't envision until last spring when she told an audience at an event for a woman's leadership organization about pursuing an interest in the media, if given the opportunity. Her revelation caught the attention of one of the organization's board members sitting in the audience, a Bloomberg employee who approached Ruhle after her speech.

"It's hard to pursue something you want to do when you have a life to live," Ruhle says. "But the more we started to talk about this philosophically, the more it turned into a reality."

That soon set in motion Ruhle being in the spotlight rather than in the corporate arena. Ruhle would continue working for Deutsche Bank until September when she moved over to Bloomberg.

While she sees this as a "big leap" for both her and her new employer, Ruhle points out that it was made easier by her past experience of speaking at corporate functions as well as being well-versed in the markets, especially developing expertise in the complex world of credit derivatives.

Ruhle also credits the mindset she developed during her childhood in northern New Jersey and carried over as a student at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, when she found herself switching over from engineering to being on a trading floor.

"Growing up, I never had one specific interest but I have always been highly competitive," Ruhle says. "So it was less relevant what the game was but what I wanted more than anything was to win it."

What has also gotten Ruhle acclimated to the broadcasting world were her new co-workers, whom she describes as "very smart" and "generous."

So what is it like being a Bloomberg anchor?

For Ruhle, it's starting work at 4 a. m., leaving behind her husband and two small children at their Lower Manhattan home. Then it's meeting with staff and others to prep for 6 a.m. show opening. After the program ends at 8 a.m. Ruhle and her colleagues are already preparing for the next day.

Working daily in the news business has allowed her to not only bring her knowledge of the markets to the general public but also to explore topics as wide ranging as Occupy Wall Street and the European debt crisis.

And it is a job that she sees herself staying in for quite awhile.

"What chapter two will be, I don't know yet?"

Stephanie Ruhle is the new anchor on the Bloomberg Television morning show, "Inside Track". Photo provided by Bloomberg Television.

Citigroup Introduces ' Hedge Fund 3.0 '

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Citigroup wants to help hedge funds operate more efficiently and has a model to make that a reality.

The financial services firm's prime brokerage unit introduced on Wednesday the "Hedge Fund 3.0" concept, based on its study of hedge funds in the past two years.

Hedge Fund 3.0 is designed as a guideline for building a successful hedge fund by focusing more on the core of their business — promoting to potential customers and growing the assets under management.

The way that will happen successfully during the Hedge Fund 3.0 model is by hedge funds shedding a number of in-house operations and outsourcing them.

The model identifies what measures would be beneficial for hedge funds to attain efficiency along with savings: business process outsourcing for various day-to-day functions, specialist HR and benefits brokers, off-premise IT services and knowledge process outsourcing.

(A) previous Citigroup survey found that firms spare no expense when it comes to computer operations as it projected that hedge funds will spend over $ 2 billion on information technology in 2011.

Sandy Kaul, U.S. head of business advisory at Citi, said hedge funds in today's markets should consider Hedge Fund 3.0.

"These firms can think strategically about the use of outsourced partners, especially when facing trigger events, such as, expansion to larger office space, replacing end-of-life equipment, moving to multi-currency operations, or launching a new investment strategy," Kaul said. "Over time, many funds will move to a hybrid approach that combines in-house and outsourced resources."

Citigroup's New Hedge Fund 3.0

Related Stories
Survey: Hedge Funds Will Spend $ 2B on IT

MF Global Lays Off Over 1,000 Employees

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AppId is over the quota
The other shoe dropped at MF Global when the bankrupt hedge fund brokerage reportedly let go over 1,000 employees Friday.

Most of the 1,066 employees, who worked in the New York and Chicago offices, were informed of their termination in town hall meetings held in both cities, although some complained that they only found out from the press, according to news reports.

About 150 to 200 employees will be rehired in the near future to help assist in closing out the firm and processing bankruptcy claims.

The brokerage, led by former New Jersey Governor and Goldman Sachs executive Jon Corzine, filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 31 after losing almost 70% of its stock value in one week last month, along with a 14% decline in revenue for its second quarter compared to the same period last year.

Corzine resigned from his positions as CEO and Chairman on Nov. 4.

Go to CNBC report

Go to New York Times report

Go to Dow Jones report

Related Stories
Corzine Steps Down From MF Global

Former CalPERS Chairman Joins Lyrical Partners

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AppId is over the quota
Fund-of-hedge-funds firm Lyrical Partners has hired a former chairman of the investment committee for the CalPERS pension system.

Michael Flaherman has joined the firm as a managing director, according to a statement by the firm on Wednesday.

In his newly-created position, Flaherman will also serve on the investment committee for Lyrical's fund of hedge funds.

Flaherman served on the investment committee for CalPERS from 2000 to 2003 and had served as a board member since 1995.

Lyrical Partners is based in New York and was founded in 2004 by Jeffrey Keswin, who previously co-founded Greenlight Capital.