Hedge Funds

Hedge Funds with Puerto Rico Revenue Bonds Want Court to Delay General Obligation Bondholders’ Lawsuit

Published on: October 27, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A battle of hedge funds, and their competing interests, has erupted in Puerto Rico over the last few weeks. This week, hedge funds Tilden Park Capital Management LP, Whitebox Advisors LLC, Merced Capital LP, and GoldenTree Asset Management LP filed a motion asking a court to impose a legal stay that would delay the lawsuit filed by general obligation bondholders that want Puerto Rico to stop directing sales-tax revenue away from the general fund. These hedge funds that submitted the motion collectively hold about $2 billion of tax revenue bonds, which are called COFINA bonds, locally.

Meantime, the general obligation bondholders that filed the lawsuit are also hedge funds. They include entities under the management of Aurelius Capital Management, FCO Advisors, Autonomy Capital, Covalent Partners, Monarch Alternative Capital, and Stone Lion Capital Partners. Earlier this month, they asked a court to stop the island from using sales-tax revenue to pay back COFINA debt. Those funds believe that the sales tax revenue should pay back the general obligation bonds first because Puerto Rico’s constitution states that general obligation should be repaid before other debt. However, the hedge funds holding the COFINAs that are requesting the legal stay are arguing that COFINA’s share of the sales-and-use-tax should not be “subject to clawback” in the event of a payment shortfall of the general obligation bonds.

This fight is playing out at the same time the U.S. Government is trying to help the U.S. Commonwealth with its financial crisis. PROMESA, which stands for the Puerto Rico Oversight Management and Economic Stability Act, is the new law that includes the legal stay that the CONFINA holders want imposed. The stay postpones creditor lawsuits against the island until February 15, 2017 in order to give Puerto Rico time to work out how to repay the $70 billion of debt it owes. Although Puerto Rico is way overdue on $1.8 billion of principal plus interest payments, this includes what the island owes on general obligation bonds, the Commonwealth paying back COFINAs.
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Artis Capital Management Accused of Not Preventing $6M Insider Trading

Published on: October 17, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A San Francisco-based hedge fund advisory firm has agreed to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges alleging its failure to notice that one its employees was engaged in insider trading. Artis Capital Management will disgorge the more than $5.1M in illicit rating profits made by employee Matthew G. Teeple for the firm plus over $1.1M of interest. The hedge fund firm will also pay a more than $2.5M penalty.

According to the regulator, Artis Capital did not maintain policies and procedures adequate enough to prevent insider trading from taking place at the firm. The Commission contends that Teeple’s supervisor, Michael W. Harden, did not respond as needed when red flags arose to indicate that Teeple was engaging in wrongful behavior.

To settle the SEC charges against him, Harden will pay a $130K penalty and serve a 1-year suspension from the securities industry. He and Artis Capital consented to the regulator’s order. However, they did not deny or admit to the Commission’s findings.

SEC Cases: Och-Ziff Hedge Fund Settles FCPA Violation Charges for $413M, Employee is Accused of Insider Trading Prior to Drug Announcement, and Company Pays Fine After Firing Whistleblower

Published on: October 14, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

NY Hedge Fund to Pay $413M to Settle Civil and Criminal Charges Over FCPA Violations

Och-Ziff Capital Management Group has settled both criminal and civil charges accusing the New York hedge fund of paying bribes to obtain business in Africa. This is the first hedge fund to face punishment over violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

As part of its settlement with the SEC, Och-Ziff will pay almost $200M to the Commission. Meantime, the hedge fund’s CEO, Daniel S. Och, will pay the regulator almost $2.2M to resolve charges accusing him of causing certain violations. CFO Joel M. Frank also agreed to settle the SEC the charges against him and will pay a penalty.

Hedge Funds Holding Puerto Rico General Obligation Bonds File Lawsuit

Published on: October 11, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A number of hedge funds with Puerto Rico general obligation bonds want a court to stop the U.S. territory from using its sales-tax revenue to pay back other debt. Those hedge funds say that such an action is a violation of the Commonwealth’s constitution.

To date, the Commonwealth owes nearly $13 billion of general obligation bonds. Under its constitution, Puerto Rico is required to pay back its general obligation bonds before paying off other expenses. According to the plaintiffs, part of the territory’s’ sales tax revenue is supposed to go toward that repayment.

The plaintiffs sued Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla to stop the territory from moving money away from bondholders, which they say violates the new federal law concerning Puerto Rico, called PROMESA. The hedge funds submitted their amended complaint last week, in which they added the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp., commonly called COFINA, as a defendant. The plaintiffs include entities under the management of Aurelius Capital Management, Covalent Partners, Autonomy Capital, Monarch Alternative Capital, FCO Advisors, and Stone Lion Capital Partners.

San Francisco Hedge Fund Files Securities Fraud Lawsuit Against Blood Testing Company Theranos

Published on: October 11, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Wall Street Journal and other media are reporting that Theranos is now the defendant of a securities fraud lawsuit brought by one of its major investors. The plaintiff is San Francisco hedge fund Partner Fund Management, which is one of the blood testing company’s largest financial backers. Partner, which brought its case in the Delaware Court of Chancery, is seeking damages beyond its investment and costs related to the lawsuit.

Although the complaint is under seal, Partner has confirmed that it has brought a legal case against the beleaguered blood testing company. According to a letter, which the hedge fund sent to investors, Theranos took part in “lies, material misstatements, and omissions” to persuade Partner to invest in the company. The letter notes that Theranos CEO/founder Elizabeth Holmes and ex-President Sunny Balwani are also defendants in the case.

Partner Fund believes that Holmes was deceptive when claiming that Theranos’s proprietary technologies were working and close to receiving regulatory approvals. Meantime, Theranos has stated that it would combat the securities fraud lawsuit.

Securities Fraud News: Another Hedge Fund Shutters, Telecom Company to Pay $1.25M for Disclosure Failures, and SEC Orders Stock Trader to Pay $1.5M Over Fraud Charges

Published on: September 13, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Former SAC Trader To Close Down Hedge Fund In The Wake of Losses

Andrew Bazarian will close down his Pinyin Capital Management Hong Kong Ltd.’s hedge fund in the wake of massive losses sustained by the fund, a lack of investor interest, and the exodus of Blue Pool Capital, its largest backer. Bazarian, a former SAC trader, started the fund in 2014 with Blue Pool’s $100M pledge. He left SAC to start the pan-Asian portfolio before the firm pleaded guilty to charges of insider trading.

Bazarian’s hedge fund is not the only one to shutter because of poor returns and investors leaving the industry. In July alone, investors throughout the world withdrew about $25.2B from hedge funds. According to Bloomberg, others that have closed down hedge funds in Asia AMP Capital, Lazard Asset Management, and Pine River Capital Management.

Telecommunications Company to Pay $1.25M for Not Disclosing Credit Risks

The Securities and Exchange Commission said that Portugal Telecom SGPS S.A. will pay a $1.25M penalty for not properly disclosing the degree of credit risk involved in investments in debt instruments issued by Grupo Espirito Santo’s companies. By settling, Portugal Telecom is not denying or admitting to the findings. It has, however, consented to the regulator’s cease-and-desist order.

Securities Fraud News: Hedge Fund Manager Accused of Securities Fraud Involving Payoffs to the Terminally Ill, SEC Halts Trading in Neruomama Shares, and Commodity Pool Fraud Leads to More than $10M in Penalties and Restitution

Published on: August 17, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Investment Advisor Firm Accused of Paying Off Terminally Ill Patients to Commit Fraud
The SEC has filed fraud charges against Donald Lathen and his Eden Arc Capital Management. Lathen is accused of recruiting at least 60 individuals who had less than six months to live and agreeing to pay them $10K each for the use of their names on joint brokerage accounts. When one of these individuals would die, he would allegedly redeem the investments by falsely representing that he and the terminally individual person were joint account holders.

Lathen recruited the terminally ill patients through contacts he had at hospices and nursing homes. In reality, it was Lathen’s hedge fund that owned the option investments.

As a result, of the purported omissions and misrepresentations, issuers paid over $100M in early redemptions. Lathen is accused of violating the custody rule by not properly putting the securities and money from the hedge fund in an account under the name of the fund or in one that held only client money and securities.

SEC Stops Trading in Neromamam Ltd.
The SEC has stopped the trading of Neuromama Ltd. (NERO) shares. The shares trade on the mostly unregulated over-the-counter markets and the regulator is concerned about transactions that may be “potentially manipulative, as well as other red flags that have purportedly been cropping up for years.

Neruomama’s paper value went up times four to $35B this year despite not much volume. The company’s shares went up by four times to $56/share. (On January 15, ’14, its value was $4.73B.)

San Francisco Investment Manager is Sued Over $2M Hedge Fund Fraud

Published on: August 11, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a financial fraud lawsuit against Nicholas M. Mitsakos and his Matrix Capital Market. Mitsakos and his investment advisory firm are accused of pretending that they managed millions of dollars in assets. They allegedly stole about $800K from the first client that invested with them. The client, a Cayman Islands fund, invested $1.99M.

Mitsakos and his firm are accused of soliciting investors in a purported hedge fund. They are said to have falsely claimed they were successful money managers overseeing millions of dollars even though they had no assets. Instead, they allegedly made up a hypothetical investment portfolio in which the investments made up to 66% of yearly returns. The two of them are accused of pretending that these trades were real.

Commenting on the hedge fund fraud, SEC New York Regional Office Director Andrew Calamari said that it is important for investors to verify any information about an investment opportunity, especially one that is touted as having a “lofty historical performance.”

“Weekly” Investments Are Popular With Big Traders But Come With Drawbacks

Published on: July 26, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

With the trading volume for weekly short-term options having grown, our securities fraud law firm wanted to remind investors that there are risks involved in these investments. Weeklys are listed on a Thursday and expire the next Friday. Their popularity is due in part to their lower cost compared to options that expire after a longer period of time. Aggressive traders, such as hedge funds, are among the weeklys’ primary investors.

Weeklys are popular on NASDAQ, CBOE Holdings, OMX, and Intercontinental Exchange. They were introduced in 2005. Weeklys are available on the majority of liquid stocks and a number of individual equities and exchange-traded funds.

Barron’s reported last year that there were over 400 weekly options listed on exchanges. Many of them involve the most popular indexes and stocks. That said, there are negatives to investing in weeklys, including:

· A smaller stock pool

· Higher commissions

· Price executions that are not that favorable

· Lower liquidity options

Hedge Funds Sue Puerto Rico and Its Governor

Published on: July 25, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A group of hedge funds that are holding Puerto Rico debt are suing the U.S. territory and Governor Alejandro García Padilla. Monarch Alternative Capital, Aurelius Capital Management, Stone Lion Capital Partners, Covalent Capital Partner, Aurelius Capital Management, Fundamental Credit Opportunities, and a number of other funds claim that Puerto Rico and Governor García violated PROMESA, which stands for the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act. President Barack Obama signed the new debt restructuring law on June 30, which is when García issued a debt moratorium on the nearly $800 million in general obligation debt that was due on July 1 (along with other Puerto Rico debt for a collective total of about $2 billion). The hedge funds say that Governor García had no legal right to call a debt moratorium in the wake of PROMESA.

The bondholders want the court to stop the island from “unlawfully dissipating” assets before a federal oversight board is appointed. PROMESA places the U.S. territory under the supervision of the board, which is tasked with pressing for fiscal reform and supervising spending. However, the board won’t be in place for at least two months.

In their complaint, filed in United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, the creditors claimed that Governor García took advantage of this time gap in implementation and is spending hundreds of million dollars in ways that garner “political favor.” The hedge funds argued that certain expenditures would have been challenged by the board if it were already in place.

The plaintiffs, as holders of general obligation bonds, say they are entitled to some of the money being spent because Puerto Rico still owes them the debt payments. They want the district court to freeze the payments that have been issued and mark them as invalid until the board can take a look at them.