US Legal & Regulation

Legal-Bay, a US lawsuit settlement funding firm for BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill plaintiffs, has been in talks with several foreign institutional hedge fund investors as well as traditional banks to raise more funding capital.  »

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Houston-based hedge fund manager and his firm with defrauding investors in two hedge funds and steering bloated fees to a brokerage firm chief executive officer. »

Rajarengan (Rengan) Rajaratnam, a former portfolio manager at the hedge fund management firm Galleon Group, has been charged with conspiracy and securities fraud for his alleged involvement in an insider trading scheme. »

The Honourable Jed S Rakoff of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York has entered a final judgment approving a USD1.8m settlement between the SEC and hedge fund manager Douglas F Whitman and his firm Whitman Capital in a case that arose from the SEC's investigation of widespread insider trading perpetrated by Raj Rajaratnam of Gallon Management and other hedge fund managers. »

A German national who managed a series of hedge funds based in the Cayman Islands has been indicted on federal fraud charges alleging that he oversaw a stock manipulation scheme designed to “pump up” the reported returns of his hedge funds, while self-dealing for his own benefit to the detriment of the funds, in a fraud that caused investors to loss approximately USD200m. »

BNY Mellon, a provider of investment management and investment services, has developed a reporting solution that enables its affected alternative investment clients to prepare and file Form PF, as required by recent rules introduced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). »

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has obtained an asset freeze against a Massachusetts-based investment adviser charged with stealing money from clients who were given the false impression they were investing in a hedge fund. »

Connecticut-based hedge fund advisory firm CR Intrinsic Investors has agreed to pay more than USD600m to settle Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges that it participated in an insider trading scheme involving a clinical trial for an Alzheimer’s drug being jointly developed by two pharmaceutical companies. »

New York-based hedge fund advisory firm Sigma Capital Management has agreed to pay nearly USD14m to settle the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges that the firm engaged in insider trading based on non-public information obtained through one of its analysts about the quarterly earnings of Dell and Nvidia Corporation. »

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has expressed support for legislation that would resolve issues surrounding the indemnification provisions and confidentiality requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act to ensure regulators continue to have access to a global set of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives data for systemic risk oversight and mitigation purposes. »