Russian spy a hedge funder?
Anna Chapman, the New York City woman accused of being a Russian spy, claims to have a high-flying hedge fund background.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Chapman was “Head of IPO” at “Navigator hedge fund” in London from 2005 to 2007 and was “responsible for managing unique marketing program promoting the clients’ stock, creating volume of trading on European Stock Exchanges.” She was also the “first point of contact for clients, liaison on terms of deal –from initial contact, first conference call to participating in every aspect of relationship inc post deal,” as quoted from the website.
Maybe. According to the Guardian, Chapman was really just a personal assistant of Nicholas Camilleri, chief executive of Mayfair-based Navigator Asset Management Advisers.
Ex-Boston Provident CFO heads to the big house
Ezra Levy, the former chief trader and CFO of Manhattan firm Boston Provident, was sentenced to 67 months in prison for stealing approximately $3 million from the hedge fund.
The 33-year-old pleaded guilty in March and was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $2.98 million.
According to the Department of Justice, Levy most recently misappropriated money last year by getting Boston Provident to purchase stock from his personal brokerage account at an inflated price in 2009, netting approximately $537,000.
The biggest haul occurred between February 2006 and October 2009, when Levy diverted money owed to Boston Provident—periodic principal, interest, and dividend payments—into a personal bank account, which he used to pay credit card bills, purchase real estate and buy an Aston Martin.
Insider trading case dismissed
The SEC’s insider-trading case against a Deutsche Bank salesman and hedge-fund portfolio manager was dismissed by a judge who said there was “no evidence” to support its allegations.
The SEC said Jon-Paul Rorech of Deutsche Bank and Renato Negrin of Millennium Partners shared confidential information about the debt restructuring of VNU, a Dutch media holding company, and then traded swaps based on it.
No so, said the judge. “The SEC asks the Court to draw the inference that Mr. Rorech shared inside information with Mr. Negrin from circumstantial evidence,” wrote U.S. District judge John Koeltl in his opinion. “However, that evidence does not support the conclusion that Mr. Rorech or Mr. Negrin violated insider trading laws.”
UBS sues Highland, again
UBS is going after Highland Capital Management again. In a new lawsuit, UBS accuses the hedge fund of providing false financial information to avoid making payments on a transaction, reports Reuters. UBS is seeking $686 million.
The central claim of a 2009 suit was dismissed in February, but the new complaint says Highland and two affiliates fraudulently induced UBS to restructure debt linked to a collateralized debt obligation in 2008.
The Swiss bank says the restructuring allowed Highland to avoid an $86 million payment and cost UBS hundreds of millions of dollars in losses as the CDO deal fell apart.
“We are dismayed UBS continues to pursue this wasteful suit despite our attempts to work cooperatively with them to resolve the matter,” said Nina Devlin, a Highland spokeswoman, in a statement.
Alleged forex Ponzi scheme frozen
The SEC announced fraud charges and an emergency asset freeze against a purported $105 million Ponzi scheme orchestrated by a Virgin Islands-based hedge fund.
U.S. regulators say that Daniel Spitzer, a resident of St. Thomas, told some 400 investors that their money would be invested in foreign currency, luring them in with claims the funds had never lost money and historically produced profitable annual returns of as high as 180%.
In classic Ponzi form, Spitzer instead used money raised from new investors to pay earlier ones, according to the SEC. In reality, he only invested approximately $30 million of the more than $105 million he raised, issuing false Schedule K-1s that showed inflated returns.
The SEC says Spitzer led an extravagant lifestyle with the money, for example spending more than $900,000 at a Las Vegas casino.
