Hedge Funds

New Jersey Hedge Fund Manager Faces SEC Charges for Bilking Small Businesses Out of Over $4M

Published on: June 12, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Securities and Exchange Commission is charging Nicholas Lattanzio with hedge fund fraud. The New Jersey man is accused of pretending to be a hedge fund manager and bilking small companies out of over $4 million.

According to the regulator, Lattanzio falsely promised small businesses that he would organize project financing for them and bring in healthy returns on money they invested in his Black Diamond Capital Appreciation Fund. He purportedly told them that they could take their money out of the project if the financing didn’t happen. He also allegedly claimed that the fund had up to $800 million under management and a history of generating double-digit returns.

The SEC, however, says that the fund never held anything above $5 million in assets and that Lattanzio took investors’ money for his own spending, including the purchase of an expensive home, a luxury car, merchandise from Tiffany & Co., over $760K in credit card debt, private school tuition for his children, and other expenses.

According to the SEC’s complaint two of Lattanzio’s victims were small companies seeking capital to finance their business. Lattanzio purportedly told them directly and through representatives that the companies would be able to get capital through a lending facility as long they invested a percentage of the capital that they wanted with Black Diamond first.

Securities Fraud Cases: NY Hedge Fund Manager Bilks Investors of Over $800K, Maize Fund Scam Leads to Restitution, Madoff Ponzi Scheme Victims Get $355M, and Kentucky Scheme Ends with Probation, Compensation

Published on: February 13, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

SEC Says New York Hedge Fund Manager Stole From Investors

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says that Moazzam Malik, a purported hedge fund manager in NYC, stole money from investors. Malik allegedly falsely claimed to be running a hedge fund holding about $100 million in assets under management. He is accused of touting high returns.

Malik raised over $840,000, but his fund, which didn’t make actual investments, never held over $90,177 in assets. Instead, he kept taking out money and spending the funds. He refused to give investors back their money, even pretending to be a fund employee and sending out an e-mail saying that he had passed away. Mailk purportedly kept soliciting investors even as he received redemption requests.

Hedge Fund Fraud Leads to Criminal Convictions

Published on: February 4, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Francisco Illarramendi has been sentenced to 13 years behind bars for a Connecticut securities scam that involved hundreds of millions of dollars from the state oil company of Venezuela. The 45-year-old ex-hedge fund manager said he committed the crimes to conceal investment losses and because he was pressured by corrupt government officials in the South American country.

Illarramendi, a Venezuelan-American, devised a currency arbitrage market that he claims made $60 billion for the government in Caracas, which kept it from failing. In 2005, he began his hedge fund scam to conceal $5 million in losses in a failed bond transaction that was made for the Venezuelan government. Illarramendi contends that he and his family were threatened with violence if they refused to go along.

The judge, however, noted that the former hedge fund manager took $20 million for his own purposes. In time, the fraud grew as Illarramendi continued to use his hedge funds to cover what now exceeded over $500,000 million. He also paid million of dollars in bribes to government officials in Venezuela for sending the oil company’s money to him, which he invested. Illarramendi pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice in 2011. To date, the court appointed receiver has recovered enough to pay investor claims of over $345 million but more needs to be recovered.

Insider Trading News: SEC Sues Ex-Capital One Data Analysts, U.S. Attorney Bharara Wants Rehearing in Case Involving Overturned Convictions, and Judge Vacates Four Men’s Guilty Pleas

Published on: January 23, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Ex-Capital Data One Analysts Are Defendants in SEC Insider Trading Lawsuit

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is suing Nan Huang and Bonan Huang, two former Capital One data analysts, for insider trading. The regulator contends that the two of them used nonpublic data to trade in consumer retail companies’ shares before earnings and sales reports were issued. They allegedly used sales information that the credit card company had collected from millions of customers.

According to the SEC lawsuit, from 11/13 to 1/15 the two analysts made hundreds, perhaps thousands of keyword searches for sales information on at least 170 companies that are publicly traded. They had access to this data because part of their job was to serve as fraud investigators.

Rajaratnam Brother Settles Insider Trading Charges Involving Hedge Fund Advisory Firm Galleon Management

Published on: October 23, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Rajarengan “Rengan” Rajaratnam, the brother of Raj Rajaratnam, has consented to pay over $840,000 to settle insider trading charges filed, against him by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Rengan, who has not admitted to or denied wrongding, also has agreed to an industry bar. A court must still approve the settlement.

Rengan was a portfolio manager at Galleon. He also co-founded Sedna Capital Management, which is another hedge fund advisory firm. Raj was convicted of insider trading in 2011.

It was in 2013 that the SEC filed charges against him for his involvement in the insider trading scam conducted by his brother Raj and Galleon Management.

Former MIT Professor and His Son Plead Guilty to $140M Hedge Fund Fraud

Published on: August 14, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Gabriel Bitran, an ex- Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, and his son Marco Bitran have pled guilty to securities fraud charges accusing them of bilking investors of $140 million. Through their company, GMP Capital Management, the father and son placed investor money in hedge funds linked to Bernard Madoff, who ran the Ponzi scam that defrauded clients of billions of dollars.

According to prosecutors, from 2005 to 2011 Bitran and Marco collected $500 million from investors by promising to invest their funds using an original complex mathematical trading model. The money was supposed to go into exchange-traded funds and other securities but were instead placed in hedge funds.

When the financial crisis of 2008 happened, a number of the hedge funds got into trouble. Some of their investors lost up to 75% of their principal.

NY Hedge Fund Adviser Faces SEC Charges Over Conflicted Transactions and Whistleblower Retaliation

Published on: June 16, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Candace King Weir and her hedge fund advisory firm Paradigm Capital Management will pay $2.2M to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission charges accusing the firm of executing prohibited principal transactions and acting against the whistleblower employee who notified the regulator about the conflicted activity. Weir is charged with causing the principal transactions to happen.

The agency contends that Weir facilitated the transactions between her firm and C.L. King & Associates, a brokerage firm that she also own, while trading for the hedge fund PCM Partners L.P. II. This type of transaction presents a conflict of interest between the client and adviser, and the latter is supposed to disclose that they are involved on both sides of the trade. The adviser also needs to get the client’s permission for this.

According to the Commission’s order, Paradigm did not give written disclosure to the hedge fund or obtain its consent. Paradigm’s head trader then reported the trading conduct.

Hedge Fund Fraud News: Ex-Osiris Partners Principals Must Pay $55M, Ex-SAC Manager Gets Prison Sentence for Insider Trading, Lawyer Goes to Prison Over Rothstein Fraud, and Former New Stream Capital Executives Plead Guilty

Published on: June 14, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

NJ Court Orders Former Osiris Partners LLC Principals To Pay Over $55M

A state court in New Jersey has ordered the ex-principals of Osiris Partners LLC, Ex-CEO Michael J. Spak, ex-Chairman Peter Zuck, and ex-controller Joseph C. Spak to pay more than $55 million in penalties and restitution for hedge fund fraud. Investors were bilked when the men fraudulently inflated the firm’s net asset value and diverted funds for personal spending.

Prosecutors contend that the men overstated the net asset value of the hedge fund so that management fees would be higher and losses could be hidden. Unregistered agents were hired to sell limited partnership interests. By the latter part of 2011, the net asset value of the fund was nearly nil because of the inflated management fees, the misappropriation of the money, investor payments, and trading losses. Dozens of investors were harmed.

Ex-Sentinel CEO is Convicted of $500M Fraud

Published on: April 24, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Eric Bloom, the CEO of Sentinel Management Group, Inc., the now bankrupt hedge fund, has been convicted of bilking over 70 customers of more than $500 million prior to the firm’s collapse. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Bloom misappropriated securities that belonged to customers when he used the financial instruments as collateral to get a loan for Sentinel from Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK). The loan was partially used to buy risky illiquid securities for a trading portfolio to benefit Bloom, other Sentinel officers, corporations controlled by his family, and his relatives.

Also, says the DOJ, even though Bloom knew that Sentinel was at risk of defaulting on the loan from the bank, he caused the hedge fund to take over $100 million from customers while hiding its true financial state. A federal jury returned guilty verdicts against him on one count of investment adviser fraud and 18 counts of wire fraud.

The guilty verdict comes six months after Charles K. Mosley, Sentinel’s former head trader, pleaded guilty to two counts of investment adviser fraud related to the charges filed against Bloom. Mosely admitted to covering up their actions. In his plea agreement, he said that customers were sent statements according to interest income rates that he and Bloom had calculated rather than the performance of investment portfolios.

SAC Capital Advisor’s $1.8B Criminal Securities Fraud Settlement with the DOJ is Accepted by a Federal Judge

Published on: April 12, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain has approved the criminal settlement reached between the US Department of Justice and SAC Capital Advisors LP. The hedge fund, which was founded by Steven A. Cohen, consented to pay a $1.8 billion penalty and plead guilty to insider trading charges that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal profits.

According to an indictment issued last year, for over a decade, insider trading involving stock of over 20 publicly-traded companies occurred at SAC Capital. The hedge fund is pleading guilty to numerous counts of securities fraud and a single count of wire fraud.

Eight of its employees have either been convicted or pleaded guilty over their involvement, including former SAC Capital portfolio managers Mathew Martoma and Michael Steinberg, who were convicted in their trials but will likely appeal. Cohen, however, has not been criminally charged—although the Securities and Exchange Commission did file a civil case against him. The regulator also put forth an administrative action to get Cohen barred from the securities industry because he failed to properly supervise Steinberg and Martoma or prevent the insider trading from happening.