Hedge Funds

Hedge Funds Under Investigation Over Bond Valuations

Published on: May 11, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to Bloomberg, US prosecutors are conducting a criminal probe into whether hedge funds inflated the value of bonds to enhance the fees they were paid. Sources told the news media outlet that prosecutors want to know whether hedge funds solicited fake price quotes from brokers, which would have let the funds artificially raise the value of illiquid securities in their portfolios.

Just this week, a witness in the residential mortgage-backed securities fraud criminal trial against three ex-Nomura Holdings Inc. traders—they are accused of lying about RMBS prices to clients—stated under oath that he had given a Premium Point Investments LP trader fake quotes. The witness, ex-broker Frank DiNucci Jr., claims that two of the defendants, Michael Gramins and Ross Shapiro, are among the ones that trained him to lie to customers about bond prices. DiNucci, who pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy and making misrepresentations,previously worked at Nomura. He also worked at Auriga USA LLC and AOC Securities LLC.

Because certain securities are hard to price, hedge funds depend on brokers and third parties for estimates and quotes to determine how to value debt. Holding artificially inflated securities in the portfolios can allow a hedge fund to tout a better performance and get paid more for performance and management fees. It also allows them to conceal when some holdings do poorly.

Securities News: Deutsche Bank Fined $157M For Violating Volcker Rule, CFTC Charges Couple With Hedge Fund Fraud, & SEC Accuses Oil and Gas Promoter of Inflating AUM

Published on: April 21, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Federal Reserve Imposes First Fine to a Bank Over A Volcker Rule Violation
For violating the Volcker Rule’s ban on making risky market bets, Deutsche Bank (DB) must pay a $157M fine for not making sure its traders didn’t make such bets and for allowing its currency desks to engage in online chats with competitors, during which time they allegedly disclosed positions. It was just last year that the German lender admitted that it did not have sufficient systems in place to keep track of activities that could violate the ban.

Under the Volcker Rule, banks that have federal insured deposits are not allowed to bet their own funds. They also are supposed to makes sure that when their traders help clients sell and buy securities, they aren’t engaging in bet making.

For the system lapses, the Federal Reserve fined Deutsche Bank $19.7M. The remaining $136.9M fine is for the chats and because the bank purportedly did not detect when currency traders were revealing positions or trying to coordinate strategies with competitors.

Securities Fraud: Ex-Broker Gets Prison Sentence for $1.2M Elder Financial Fraud, Massachusetts Man Admits to Bilking Neighbors, & More Than Two Dozen 27 Parties Under Fire Over Alleged Stock Promotion Scams

Published on: April 17, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Former Wells Fargo and LPL Financial Broker Receives 41-Month Prison Term for Elder Financial Fraud
Robert N. Tricarico, an ex-broker for both Wells Fargo Advisors (WFC) and LPL Financial (LPLA), will serve 41 months behind bars and pay restitution of over $1.2M after he pleaded guilty to elder financial fraud. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which brought a civil case against Tricarico, has barred him from the securities industry.

Court documents note that from 1/2010 to 6/2013, Tricarico was the financial adviser for a sick and elderly investor. He misappropriated over $1.1M from her by writing a number of checks to himself without the client’s consent, misappropriated checks written to her, liquidated her coin collection, and used her funds for his own expenses.

He has also admitted to bilking two other victims of $20K when he falsely represented that their money would go toward a business venture. He kept their money for himself.

Securities News: Deutsche Bank Unit Ordered to Pay $150M for Libor Rigging, FINRA Bars Broker Indicted in NY Pension Fund Scam, and Hedge Fund Manager Who Lost Investors’ Money In Madoff Ponzi Scam Commits Suicide

Published on: March 30, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Judge Orders Deutsche Bank Subsidiary to Pay $150Mfor Libor Rigging
A federal judge is ordering Deutsche Bank Group Services, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank (DB), to pay $150M for its involvement in an interest rate manipulation scam. The London unit pleaded guilty last year to rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate benchmark.

The fine comes two years after Deutsche Bank settled Libor rigging allegations with US and British regulators for $2.5B. According to prosecutors, derivatives traders at the German bank and at other banks colluded together to manipulate LIBOR rates to preference their trading positions.

Libor rigging allegations are not the only claims that Deutsche Bank has been contending with. Recently, the German Bank reached a $7.2B settlement with the US DOJ over its part in the 2008 global financial crisis. Meantime, NY and British officials ordered Deutsche Bank to pay $630M in fines because of alleged money laundering that occurred in Russia.

Securities News: Tax Reporting Mistake Costs Morgan Stanley $70M, SEC Accuses Trading Firm & Broker-Dealer of Manipulation, Layering Schemes, and RD Legal Capital’s Hedge Fund is Accused of Targeting Injured NFL Players & 9/11 Responders

Published on: March 9, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Morgan Stanley Ordered to Pay $70M for Tax-Reporting Errors
In its yearly regulatory filing, Morgan Stanley (MS) announced that it took a $70M charge because of tax-reporting mistakes made by its brokerage business from ’11 to ’16. The firm is talking to the Internal Revenue Service to settle any client tax underpayments. Morgan Stanley said that some of its wealth management clients that may have overpaid taxes as a result of these errors and they would be paid back.

The firm also announced that it might sustain a $221.3M loss because of a lawsuit brought by Salzburg, the Austrian state, over commodities derivatives and fixed-income transactions between ’05 and ’12. Salzburg claims that Morgan Stanley did not having the authority or ability to make such deals—a contention that the latter disputes.

Trading Firm Accused of Manipulating US Markets
According to a complaint brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Avalon FA manipulated the US markets on hundreds of thousands of occasions, allegedly making over $21M in a layering scam. The regulator obtained an asset freeze against the Ukrainian trading company.

Hedge Funds Pursing More than $3B From PriceWaterhousCoopers in MF Global Lawsuit

Published on: March 5, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The trial in which a number of hedge funds and creditors are partly blaming PricewaterhouseCoopers for the collapse of MF Global is about to begin in U.S. District Court in New York. The plaintiffs, alleging malpractice involving “erroneous accounting advice,” are seeking over $3B in damages. Former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine, also an Ex-Goldman Sachs (GS) co-chairman and formerly both a New Jersey governor and US senator, is expected to testify in court.

MF Global, once a global financial derivatives broker, is no longer in business. The firm failed in 2011 after customers left when they learned that Corzine had placed big bets on European sovereign debt during a volatile time for the markets. This caused a $1.6B shortfall in client accounts.

Yet, because MF Global employed repo-to-maturity instruments to bet on the debt, this let the firm report the bets as gains, which enhanced the way its revenue looked. Also, clients’ funds were commingled with MF Global’s funds even though they should not have been mixed together.

Criminal Cases: Hedge Fund Manager is Sentenced for Bilking Veterans of $1.8M, Charges Brought Over $81M Ponzi Scam Involving Hamilton Tickets, and Indictment in $17M Ponzi Scam is Dropped

Published on: January 30, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Chicago Hedge Fund Manager Gets Over Four Years in $1.8M Fraud
Clayton Cohn is sentenced to more than four years behind bars and he will pay $1.55M in restitution for targeting military veterans in a $1.8M hedge fund fraud. Cohn is an ex-US Marine. He pleaded guilty to the criminal charges against him.

Cohn is accused of pretending to be a successful hedge fund manager to persuade clients to invest with his Marketaction Capital Management. Of the over $1.8M that was invested,he lost more than $1.5M and spent at least $400K on his luxury lifestyle and business investments.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission had brought civil charges against him in 2013 when they accused Cohn of soliciting investors through his Veterans Financial Education Network. The non-profit was supposed to help veterans handle their money. Instead, he diverted some of their funds toward himself. The regulator stayed its case against him following the federal indictments. Now, the civil fraud charges will proceed.

MC2C Capital Accused of Ponzi Scam, Hedge Fund Fraud

Published on: January 21, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin has filed a securities fraud complaint against MC2 Capital. The state regulator is accusing the Boston-area hedge fund of running a Ponzi scam involving three hedge funds: the MC2 Capital Partners Fund, the MC2 Capital Value Partners Fund, and the MC2 Canadian Opportunities Fund. Alleged victims included a local institutional investor that invested $2M.

Galvin has taken action to bar the three MC2 Capital funds along with their fund operator Yasuna Murakami, from engaging in further securities business in Massachusetts. Murakami purportedly took more than $15M from over 45 investors.

He allegedly used investors’ money pay for luxury hotels, alcohol, specialty cars, and other personal expenses. The MC2 Capital Partners Fund, which was the original fund and founded in 2007, was marketed primarily to friends and family. Within a year of operation, however, the fund’s balance was negative and investors’ equity was erased.

Hedge Fund Fraud: SEC Partially Overturns Ruling Against Investment Adviser But Raises Amount He Owes & Jury Selection Begins in Former Visium Fund Manager’s Bond Fraud Case

Published on: January 9, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Ex-Visium Fund Manager on Trial for Bond Fraud
Jury selection is scheduled to begin this week in the criminal trial against Stefan Lumiere, an ex-Visium Asset Management LP portfolio manager. Lumiere, who managed the Visium Credit Opportunities Fund, is accused of falsely inflating the value of securities in a fund and committing bond fraud.

Visium Asset Management LP is a New York based-hedge fund. The $8B investment hedge fund shut down in 2016 after a criminal investigation that led to charges against a number of people, including Sanjay Valvani, who killed himself several months ago following allegations of insider trading.

According to prosecutors, from ’11 to ’13, Lumiere was among a number of people who conspired to bilk investors through the mismarking of securities’ values that were in a fund that invested in healthcare company-issued debt. The prosecution believes that the alleged misconduct caused the net asset value of the fund to be overstated by tens of millions of dollars monthly. Meantime, investors were fooled into thinking the bonds were very liquid even though they were illiquid.

Lumiere pleaded not guilty to securities fraud, conspiracy, and wire fraud charges last year.

Platinum Funds and Founder Mark Nordlicht Accused of $1B Ponzi Scam that Allegedly Bilked Over 600 Hedge Fund Investors

Published on: December 19, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

This week, the authorities arrested hedge fund founder Mark Nordlicht and several others over allegations that his Platinum Funds was involved in a $1B ponzi scam that defrauded over 600 investors. They also are facing civil charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. This is the largest Ponzi scam since the collapse of Bernard Madoff’s multi-billion dollar scheme that bilked investors of $50B.

According to the SEC, it discovered suspect activity during a probe of Platinum Partners and its flagship hedge fund advisory firms, Platinum Management LLC and Platinum Credit Management LP. The firms and Nordlicht are accused of inflating asset values, illicitly moving investor funds to conceal liquidity issues and losses, giving redemptions to the investors whom they favored, overstating the value of one oil company that was a huge asset, and making misrepresentations to bring in new investors during what internally was referred to in documents as a “Hail Mary Time.”

The SEC is accusing Nordlicht of colluding with two colleagues and an executive at Black Elk Energy, which is the funds’ oil investment, to divert nearly $100M from that company to give a “boost” to the Platinum funds. He and others allegedly manipulated a key vote to support Platinum’s position. Also, to meet investor redemption requests, the defendants allegedly took out high-interest rate loans, commingled money within the funds, and improperly raised funds from new investors.