Hedge Funds

Securities Fraud: Ex-Gerova Financial Head is Sentenced to Six Years, Black Elk Claims Reinsurer Aided Platinum Fund Scam, and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Is Accused of Spoofing

Published on: August 4, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Ex-Gerova Financial Group Head is Sentenced in $72M Fraud

Gary Hirst, the former president of Gerova Financial Group who was convicted of securities fraud and wire fraud last year, has been sentenced to six years behind bars. Hirst defrauded Gerova shareholders when he secretly gave away almost $72M of company stock to co-conspirators and himself.

He and his co-conspirators are accused of issuing huge quantities of stock and bilking stockholders and the investing public in order to earn millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains. Hirst and one of the co-conspirators, Jason Galanis, had gained enough control of Gerova that they could engage in transactions to enrich themselves and others even as they worked to conceal the scam.

Massachusetts Files Criminal Charges Against Charges Hedge Fund Manager Over Multi-Million Dollar Ponzi-Like Scam

Published on: August 2, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Prosecutors in Massachusetts have filed charges against hedge fund manager Raymond Montoya for allegedly bilking investors of millions of dollars in a Ponzi-like scam. The criminal charges against him include wire fraud and mail fraud, and they come two months after state regulators brought their own charges against him.

Montoya ran the hedge fund RMA Strategic Opportunity Fund LLC. He is accused of misusing millions of dollars of investors’ funds to pay back earlier investors, as well as to pay for his son’s mortgage along with luxury items and expenses. The criminal complaint stated that Montoya told investors that RMA held about $4B in assets under management and employed proprietary software to predict stock price changes.

In reality, contend prosecutors, the hedge fund manager oversaw less than $100M and invested just part of victim’s funds.

Ex-NY Man Who Fled as a Fugitive to Vietnam Pleads Guilty in $10M Fraud

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

Michael Wilson has pleaded guilty to wire fraud. The 30-year-old former New York businessman bilked investors of over $10M in just two years through fake investment companies.

Wilson was indicted of 47 criminal counts, including money laundering, conspiracy, and wire fraud, in 2010. He was accused of trying to bilk investors between June 2008 and July 2010. Through the fraudulent investment companies, he persuaded other companies and individuals to invest in financial instruments that supposedly guaranteed returns and high-yield earnings.

In court this week, Wilson admitted to targeting rich, sophisticated investors. Some of his clients invested up to $250K as part of their initial investments.

Hedge Funds Sue The U.S. Government Over Puerto Rico Bonds

Published on: July 20, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A group of hedge funds, including Oaktree Capital Management LP and Glendon Capital Management LP, has filed a lawsuit against the federal government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The hedge fund group are Puerto Rico bondholders who could suffer losses from bonds that were issued in 2008 to help the island’s retirement system, the Puerto Rico Employment Retirement System (ERS), stay afloat. Unfortunately, beginning in 2013, the ERS investments faltered, leading the pension system toward bankruptcy.

The hedge funds’ complaint comes after PROMESA, the federal oversight board that was appointed to help the island of Puerto Rico address its $73 billion of debt, placed the Commonwealth’s biggest public retirement fund under bankruptcy protection to help restructure $3 billion in pension obligation bonds (commonly called POBs).

The ERS’s bonds can be paid for by pension contributions that public employers make toward the retirements of their employees. The hedge fund plaintiffs thought that these payments would go to them first. However, in June, the federal oversight board approved legislation to transfer these employer contributions beyond the pension system and away from these creditors. Now, the hedge funds want a court order determining that the move was illegal. They are seeking $3.1 billion in principal plus interest on the ERS bonds.

Securities Fraud: Massachusetts Hedge Fund Manager Sentenced to 30 Months for Bilking Investors, Northeast Securities Ordered to Pay Customer $1.8M, and Ex-State Street Executive Pleads Guilty in Scheme Involving Secret Commissions

Published on: July 12, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

After Pleading Guilty, Massachusetts Money Manager Must Repay Investors
Stephen Eubanks is sentenced to 30 months behind bars for bilking investors of $437K. He also must pay restitution in that amount to his more than 20 victims.

Eubanks presented himself as a hedge fund manager at Eubiquity Capital, which he founded. He raised over $700K from investors and claimed that he was running a hedge fund that had ties with UBS (UBS), TD Ameritrade (AMTD), Fidelity, and Goldman Sachs (GS).

While Eubanks invested some of the clients’ funds for them he also spent a healthy amount of their money on his own spending. Eubanks also is accused of on occasion operating his fund as if it were a Ponzi scam.

Securities Cases: Jury Renders Guilty Verdict in Ex-ARCP CFO Brian Block’s REIT Fraud Trial & Witnesses Testify Against Ex-Hedge Fund Manager Martin Shkreli

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

A federal jury has found ex-American Realty Capital Properties (ARCP) Inc. CEO Brian Block guilty of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and other offenses, and of submitting false certifications and filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Block was convicted of overstating the adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) at the real estate investment trust. Following the rendering of the verdict in the REIT fraud case, a lawyer for Block said that his client plans to appeal.

According to the US Department of Justice, an employee notified Block, as well as then-accounting chief Lisa McAllister about the funds overstatement before the first quarter results were publicly released in 2014. However, neither of them reported the error to auditors or to the REIT’s board. Prosecutors contend that Block tried to cover up the incorrect figures in financial reports for the second quarter.

The Wall Street Journal, which reviewed ARCP’s filings, reports that during 2014’s first quarter, McAlister and Block overstated the AFFO by over $12M and by about $10.9M during the next quarter. McAlister pleaded guilty to securities fraud and other criminal charges last year.
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Jury Selection Underway in Securities Fraud Case Against Ex-Hedge Fund Manager and Pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli

Published on: June 26, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

At the Federal District Court in Brooklyn, former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli is on trial for multiple counts of securities fraud and wire fraud. Just this Monday, over 120 potential jurors were dismissed for various reasons. A number of them, through their statements, revealed that they could not be impartial, with some blaming Shkreli for problems involving the pharmaceutical industry, including that his actions had directly impacted them and/or their loved ones.

For example, one potential juror said that both of his parents now struggle to pay for their daily medical care after Shkreli raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50/pill to $750/pill overnight. The drug is used to treat parasites and has also been used for babies and AIDS patients suffering from infection. At the time of the price hike, Shkreli was running Turing Pharmaceuticals.

This criminal securities fraud case, however, is not about his time at Turing. Shkreli is accused of using the assets of Retrophin, a biotech company, in a Ponzi-like fraud when he was its CEO and of robbing investors of over $11M.

Massachusetts Hedge Fund Manager Faces Criminal and Civil Fraud Charges Over Alleged Multi-Million Dollar Ponzi Scam

Published on: May 25, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Over the weekend, Yasuna Murakami, a Cambridge-Massachusetts based hedge fund manager, was arrested and charged with wire fraud. Murakami, who managed MC2 Capital Management LLC, is accused of misappropriating investors’ funds in a Ponzi-like scam. The arrest and criminal charges come a few months after the state’s regulator, Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, filed his own administrative case against Murakami for the fraud.

Prosecutors are accusing the hedge fund manager of seeking to bilk investors. The MC2 Capital Canadian Opportunities Fund was supposed to grant American investors exposure to a Donville Kent Asset Management-supervised fund. Instead, Murakami allegedly misused investors’ money to pay for his bills, including purchases at expensive department stores, as well as to make his own investments in the fund.

He is accused of using investors’ money to pay other investors in two other MC2 hedge funds and allegedly misappropriating money from those funds. Under the charging statute, If convicted, Murakami could face up to 20 years in prison, supervised release, a fine, and be ordered to pay up to two times the gross loss or gain.

Ex-Hedge Fund Manager Pleads Guilty to $9M Investment Scam that Defrauded Investors Nearing Retirement

Published on: May 18, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Tamer Moumen, an ex-hedge fund manager, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud. He now faces up to 20 years in prison for a $9M investment.

Moumen defrauded over 50 investors. Many of his investors were close to retirement age. He advised dozens of them to liquidate retirement accounts, among other investments, and let him handle their funds.

Moumen used their funds to support his own spending, including the purchase of a $1M home, and also to pay back earlier investors. Moumen claimed to manage tens of millions of dollars through Crescent Ridge Capital Partners. He told clients he was a successful trader even though he lacked experience managing hedge funds and had lost money investing in securities before.

Hedge Funds and Pensioners Scramble For Debt Payment Owed To Them By Puerto Rico

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

In the wake of Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy filing, hedge funds are competing with the U.S. territory’s workers to get paid. The island has guaranteed retirees and workers $49 Billion in benefits. However, the federally appointed oversight board expects that it will have to cut pension costs by 10%.

Even worse for bondholders, they could get less than 25% of what bondholders are owed. This is true even for bondholders with General Obligation debt, which was supposed to have been constitutionally guaranteed. Creditors that own COFINAs, Puerto Rico sales tax bonds, are being offered up to 58 cents on the dollar should the territory’s finances get better. Both sides will appear in federal court in San Juan Puerto Rico in an attempt to try to work out a deal.

It was just recently that Puerto Rico’s oversight board submitted for Title III bankruptcy protection to help lower Puerto Rico’s $74 Billion of debt and deal with the Commonwealth’s pension crisis. Under Title III, the island can make pension recipients accept reduced benefits.