Toronto hedge fund manager settles with SEC |
Date: Friday, January 29, 2016
Author: James Langton, Investment Executive
QED Benchmark Management LLC and Peter Kuperman agree to reimburse investors US$2.9 million in losses
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday announced that a Manhattan-based investment advisory firm and its Toronto-based hedge fund manager have agreed to settle charges that they misled investors about a fund's investment strategy and historical performance. They will reimburse investors US$2.9 million in losses.
The SEC settled charges with QED Benchmark Management LLC and its Toronto-based founder/fund manager Peter Kuperman.
"After obtaining millions of dollars from investors based on these misrepresentations, QED Benchmark and Kuperman deviated from their stated investment strategy and poured most of the fund's assets into a single penny stock. They went on to make misleading and incomplete disclosures to fund investors about the value and liquidity of this penny stock investment," the SEC says in a statement.
The firm (which was started and operated in New York from 2004 to 2008 before moving to Toronto) and Kuperman consented to an SEC order settling the case, without admitting or denying its findings.
Kuperman also agreed to pay a US$75,000 penalty and to be barred from the securities industry in the U.S.
"Investment advisers must be completely candid when disclosing two key features that investors rely upon when making investment decisions: investment strategy and historical performance. This settlement enables investors in the QED Benchmark LP hedge fund to receive full monetary relief for losses suffered when they were misled on both fronts," says Andrew Calamari, director of the SEC's New York office, in a statement.