General News

	Tremont Group Sued By Investors Claiming Madoff-Related Losses	Dec 24/08
	Tremont Group Holdings Inc., a hedge-fund firm owned by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., was sued for investing with money manager Bernard Madoff who confessed to a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Investors Arthur E. Lang...Read more
	Sextant fund shy $90M, says OSC	Dec 24/08
	The Ontario Securities Commission says it is unable to account for more than $90-million in the accounts of hedge-fund operator Sextant Capital Management Inc.The OSC alleges that the fund company and its "driving force"...Read more
	Manulife settles with MFDA over Portus referral fees	Dec 24/08
	Manulife Securities has agreed to pay a $200,000 fine, plus $50,000 in costs, for the referral arrangements it had in place with defunct Portus Alternative Asset Management, according to a settlement agreement released by the Mutu...Read more
	IDCG granted regulatory approval to clear OTC interest rate swaps	Dec 23/08
	International Derivatives Clearing Group has announced that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has approved its application as a derivatives clearing organisation. The application was filed on 25 August 2008. The approval pa...Read more
	Madoff was hunting for new investors as scandal hit	Dec 23/08
	Bernard Madoff had been trying to raise new money when he was arrested and charged with fraud for allegedly running a $50bn Ponzi scheme, according to investors.Mr Madoff had contacted some of his longest-standing inve...Read more
	New York Hedge Fund Manager Banned From Commodities Trading	Dec 23/08
	U.S. regulators have imposed a permanent commodities trading ban against New York-based hedge fund Linuxor Asset Management and its principal, Abbas Shah. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has also imposed a $200,000 fi...Read more
	AIMA Canada to Establish Research Award	Dec 23/08
	The Alternative Investment Management Association–Canada (AIMA Canada) and Hillsdale Investment Management have entered into a partnership to establish the annual AIMA Canada-Hillsdale Research Award. The award will have an annual...Read more
	Madoff Fund Operator De La Villehuchet Found Dead in New York	Dec 23/08
	Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet, who ran a fund that invested with Bernard Madoff, was found dead at his Madison Avenue office today, a New York City police officer at the scene said. The death appeared to be a suicide, h...Read more
	Dreier Case Leads to Charges Against Broker Kovachev	Dec 23/08
	A former broker was arrested on federal charges that he helped Marc Dreier, the jailed New York law firm founder, defraud hedge funds of $100 million. Kosta Kovachev was charged today in a criminal complaint in New York f...Read more
	Madoff offers an extremely expensive lesson in due diligence	Dec 22/08
	Jérôme de Lavenère Lussan, managing partner of investment management consultancy Laven Partners, says that the fraud apparently perpetrated by Bernard Madoff lays bare the inadequate nature and lazy implementation of the due dilig...Read more
	Change Ahead for Hedge Funds	Dec 22/08
	Hedge funds have suffered a shakeout in 2008. The average hedge fund fell almost 20 percent, according to Hedge Fund Research. No fund has yet required a bailout. But many won’t be around in the new year, and those that have s...Read more
	Madoff Scheme May Halve Chilean Bank Celfin’s Profit	Dec 22/08
	Celfin Capital SA, the Chilean brokerage that manages about $4 billion in assets, may see its 2008 profit cut in half on losses from investments in funds controlled by alleged U.S. fraudster Bernard Madoff. “It has a sign...Read more
	Carbon Hedge Fund to Launch in Early 2009	Dec 19/08
	London-based CF Partners will launch early next year a new 50 million euro ($70.06 million) hedge fund aiming to profit from volatility in carbon markets. The European Union's emissions trading scheme may be a surer investment fol...Read more
	NY man charged with insider trading on wifes info	Dec 19/08
	Authorities said on Thursday a former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc salesman tipped friends and relatives with inside information about 13 impending mergers by divulging confidential information he got from his wife, a public relat...Read more
	Sprott Bets Against Canadian Banking Stocks, Sees Depression	Dec 19/08
	Eric Sprott, the investor whose flagship $900 million fund has beaten 89 percent of Canadian rivals since 2003, said he’s betting against domestic bank shares because he expects loan losses to soar as the global economy heads into...Read more
	Mass. investor saw inside Madoff scam	Dec 19/08
	His repeated warnings that Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff was running a giant Ponzi scheme have cast Harry Markopolos as an unheeded prophet.But people who know or worked with Markopolos say it wasn't prescience that hel...Read more
	Hedgies Among Big Donors To Clinton Foundation	Dec 19/08
	Hedge fund managers and their charitable foundations are amply represented among the largest donors to former President Bill Clinton’s charity, according to a list of donors released yesterday.While the focus has been on the forei...Read more
	Hedge fund graveyard: 693 and counting	Dec 19/08
	A research group says 344 hedge funds were liquidated in the third quarter - a significant increase that represents 7% of all hedge funds.A record number of hedge funds went bust during the third quarter, a report showed Thursday,...Read more
	Hedge fund investments down but not out in Alaska	Dec 19/08
	State's permanent and retirement funds sought high returns, but not with Madoff.A giant Ponzi scheme that's roiled Wall Street since last week wasn't part of Alaska's big investment funds and probably couldn't have been, state inv...Read more
	Not All Hedge Fund Strategies Stink This Year	Dec 19/08
	Although losses and redemptions are drastically shrinking the entire hedge fund world, global macro funds are garnering more interest because of their stronger returns and easy availability of liquidity.Global macro funds — which ...Read more
	Bernies Bravado	Dec 19/08
	In a desperate bid to keep his sinking business afloat, disgraced Wall Street big Bernard Madoff demanded that friends and investors pump even more funds into his failing firm right up until the feds put the cuffs on him, The Post...Read more
	Schulich academic wins award for paper on hedge fund regulation	Dec 19/08
	Award meant to encourage applied research in the field of alternative investments in Canada.A research paper on the impact of hedge fund regulation on fund performance has won an alternative investment industry research award esta...Read more
	Big frauds and small starts	Dec 19/08
	Big frauds often start small. Unforgivably, they often start with small omissions.Let's take Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, whose managed accounts are now out $50 billion. It's not clear whether that $50 billion was lost or...Read more
	Hedge funds urged to accept oversight	Dec 19/08
	The global hedge fund industry had already been working to increase transparency and oversight, but now Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud has some organizations, like the CFA Institute, urging the industry to adopt a unif...Read more
	Hedge Funds to Stem Losses in 2009, GFIA’s Peter Douglas Says	Dec 19/08
	Hedge funds, on course for the worst year on record, will stem losses in 2009 as managers of equity long-short funds and macro funds attract investors, Peter Douglas, principal of hedge-fund consulting firm GFIA Pte said. M...Read more
	Madoff’s Misconduct Said to Date to 1970s as Client List Surged	Dec 19/08
	U.S. regulators, trying to unravel the breadth of Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion fraud, have found evidence of misconduct stretching back to at least the 1970s, two people familiar with the inquiry said. Madoff’s in...Read more
	Madoff’s Wife Said to Be Questioned Over Helping Keep Ponzi Records	Dec 18/08
	Ruth Madoff, wife of alleged fraud mastermind Bernard Madoff, is being investigated by U.S. regulators over whether she maintained secret records used in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, a person familiar with the matter said....Read more
	CSX Settles Suit Against Hedge Funds TCI, 3G	Dec 18/08
	The battle between CSX Corp. and a pair of activist hedge funds is finally over, three months after the railroad agreed to seat four director nominees proffered by the hedge funds. Under a proposed settlement, The Children’s ...Read more
	Santander blocks fund website	Dec 18/08
	Santander, one of Europe's largest banks, has resorted to self-censorship as it deals with the fallout from the alleged Bernard Madoff fraud.Spain's biggest bank has blocked public access to the website of its Optimal ...Read more
	Fairfield Greenwich Group sees Swiss merger collapse after USD7.5bn Madoff loss	Dec 17/08
	US fund of hedge funds manager Fairfield Greenwich Group, facing the possible loss of more than half of its assets through the collapse of Bernard Madoff's investment management business through apparent fraud, has also seen the m...Read more
	Barclay CTA Index up 1.54 per cent in November and heads for best performance since 1995	Dec 17/08
	Managed futures enjoyed a new gain of 1.54 per cent in November, according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by Fairfield, Iowa-based index provider BarclayHedge, taking the index's cumulative advance to 12.69 per cent over the fi...Read more
	Scotia Capital Canadian Hedge Fund Index gains ground in November	Dec 17/08
	The Scotia Capital Canadian Hedge Fund Performance Index finished November 2008 up 1.65 per cent on an asset weighted basis and down 2.73 per cent on an equal weighted basis. The index outperformed both the TSX Composite and the S...Read more
	Nine reasons to go and hug a hedgie	Dec 17/08
	The Madoff scandal means it’s open season on hedge funds, notes Lombard’s Andrew Hill. … here are Lombad’s nine top reasons to “hug a hedgie”: 1) They provide liquidity. More liquidity equals less market volatility. 2) They help b...Read more
	Barbarians at the hedge fund gates	Dec 16/08
	With investor confidence in the doldrums, many hedge fund managers are under siege from investors clamouring to recover their capital. Max Ziff, co-head of UK financial advisory services at Houlihan Lokey, and Victoria Younghusb...Read more
	Madoffs kiss of death for hedge funds	Dec 16/08
	The $50bn Ponzi scheme allegedly run by Bernard Madoff on the 17th floor of New York's Lipstick Building is a disaster for the hedge fund sector. Mathieu Robbins reports.The Madoff situation is, at a time of mass redemptions and...Read more
	Tremont Group Funds Invested $3.3 Billion With Madoff	Dec 16/08
	Tremont Group Holdings Inc., a hedge- fund firm owned by OppenheimerFunds Inc., had $3.3 billion invested with Bernard Madoff, according to a person familiar with the matter. Tremont’s Rye Investment Management unit had $3.1 billi...Read more
	Can Hedge Funds Be Fraudulent?	Dec 16/08
	I'll be on NPR's Planet Money podcast today, trying my best to explain what a hedge fund is. As John Gapper says, it's crucial to understand that Bernie Madoff did not have a hedge fund, and that hedge funds tend to have prime b...Read more
	Madoff Case Spurs Pleas for Information From Clients, Relatives	Dec 16/08
	The Bernard Madoff fraud has been estimated to total as much as $50 billion, a number that many say defies credulity. The answer to how much money was actually lost will be the job of forensic accountants to discover. In a...Read more
	Hedge fund body wants help for Madoff victims	Dec 16/08
	Hedge fund trade association the Alternative Investment Management Association (Aima) called on Monday for restitution for investors caught out by an alleged $50 billion (33 billion pound) fraud at New York hedge fund firm Madoff ...Read more
	Fund of hedge funds managers optimistic despite record losses and withdrawals	Dec 16/08
	As the worst performance year on record for funds of hedge funds draws to a close, hedge funds are also facing record withdrawals, according to Standard & Poor's Fund Services. Hedge fund assets under management were down by 1...Read more
	Sprott Foundation donates $1 million to fight hunger and poverty	Dec 16/08
	Funds support CHF projects around the world.Eric Sprott, the president of Toronto’s Sprott Asset Management Inc., had donated $1 million to the Canadian development organization CHF, his foundation announced on Monday.Sprott and h...Read more
	Canadians also hit by US$50B collapse	Dec 16/08
	Canadian investors haven't been unscathed by the US$50-billion collapse of the Bernard Madoff hedge-fund empire, potentially the world's largest fraud case. But it's not yet clear the extent of the damage they have suffered.Some i...Read more
	RBC Hedge 250 Index Returned -1.50 per cent in November 2008	Dec 16/08
	RBC Capital Markets today reported that for the month of November 2008 the RBC Hedge 250 Index® had a net return of -1.50 per cent. This brings the year-to-date return of the Index to -20.18 per cent. These returns are estimated a...Read more
	Third of Hedge Funds Face Wipe Out After Slump, Godden Says	Dec 15/08
	Almost a third of hedge funds will shut or merge after the $1.5 trillion industry posted its worst ever performance this year, according to IGS Group, which advises hedge funds on raising money. “The failure rate is going to go up...Read more
	Investors remain amazed over Madoffs sudden downfall	Dec 15/08
	By David Lieberman, Pallavi Gogoi, Theresa Howard and Kevin McCoy in New York; Matt Krantz reported from Los Angeles.The financial world begins this week still in a daze over the spectacular collapse of an alleged Ponzi scheme by ...Read more
	The coming of age of Islamic structured products	Dec 15/08
	Malaysia’s structured products market is benefiting from the development of a liquid Islamic capital market.Islamic finance is coming of age. Today, for the first time, Islamic structurers in Malaysia and the Middle East are start...Read more
	Withdrawals bedevil hedge funds, and not just the poor performers	Dec 15/08
	For Bernard Madoff, the embattled hedge fund manager, the world came to an end when his funds were unable to meet $7 billion in withdrawals at a time when he was supposedly managing $17 billion.The number may sound staggering, but...Read more
	Canadian hedge fund star in showdown with regulators	Dec 15/08
	In September, at the inaugural Canadian Hedge Fund Awards ceremony in Toronto, Sextant Capital Management Inc. was honoured for a performance that defied expectations in the battered-down hedge fund industry hit by a global financ...Read more
	Red flags at hedge funds that worry experts	Dec 15/08
	As the hedge fund industry reels from news that investor Bernard Madoff allegedly committed a $50 billion fraud, forensic accountants, former prosecutors and private investigators list some potential red flags at hedge funds that ...Read more
	Madoff Said to Use Unregistered Side-Unit for Clients	Dec 15/08
	Federal investigators working through the weekend to unravel Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme found evidence he ran an unregistered money-management business alongside his firm’s brokerage and investment-advis...Read more