Former investment banker and financial writer William Cohan has written a blistering critique of the SEC’s settlement with former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, essentially accusing the SEC of abject surrender to the forces of evil and begging the judge to reject the settlement: “We are all worse off for […]
There have been various developments over the past several weeks which investors may consider relevant in allocating their resources or evaluating alternatives that are available to them. Some of the more significant developments include, but are not limited to, the following: The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened the week at 10,023 and, on Monday, the […]
The liability exposure of registered investment advisors for imprudent recommendations of hedge funds and other managed investments is increasing. On April 22, 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) censured Hennessee Group LLC and Charles J. Gradante and ordered them to pay, jointly and severally, over $800,000 for violating Section 206(2) of the Investment […]
The hoopla surrounding the presidential election and the promise of a new team in Washington does not change the reality that we are still mired in a seemingly unending financial mess. But, according to New York Times business columnist Gretchen Morgenson, President-Elect Barack Obama needs to signal investors and taxpayers that he will be looking […]
Federal prosecutors have brought the first criminal case related to the subprime mortgage meltdown. A federal indictment brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York which was unsealed on Thursday, June 19, alleges that former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, deceived investors. The two were […]
Ralph R. Cioffi, the former manager of the two Bear Stearns hedge funds whose collapse last year triggered the credit crisis, is the prime suspect in investigations by the Justice Department and the SEC as reported recently by BusinessWeek.com. The investigations are proceeding on two fronts: first, whether Cioffi and his team deliberately misled investors […]
On April 23, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission has refused a congressional request to disclose why the investigation into Bear Stearns was dropped. The purpose of that investigation was to determine if the firm harmed investors by improperly valuing complex debt securities. In a letter dated April 2, the […]
Today’s Wall Street Journal reported in an article by Kate Kelly that the criminal investigation into the collapse of two internal Bear Stearns hedge funds could hinge on whether the funds’ managers misled investors during a conference call in the Spring of 2007. In an investor call held on April 25, 2007, Ralph Cioffi, the […]
The news only appears to be getting worse for Bear Stearns and investors in its two failed hedge funds, the High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund (the “Enhanced Fund”) and the High-Grade Structured Credit Fund (the “High-Grade Fund”). Last May, when investors tried to get out of the funds after learning that losses […]
