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The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has charged Scott Bottolfson and Spirit Investments, both of Encinitas, California, and Increase Investments, Inc of Reno, Nevada, with fraudulently soliciting approximately USD14 million from 30 individuals to invest in two commodity pools to trade commodity futures contracts and options on commodity futures.
Spirit and Increase allegedly operated the pools.
The CFTC’s complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of California, charges that, from approximately 2002 through August 2010, Bottolfson lured prospective participants with false or misleading representations, including promising a 20 per cent fixed-rate return on investments, that
International law firm Mourant Ozannes has expanded its award-winning Cayman Islands investment funds team with the appointment of Associate Adam Bathgate (pictured), who joins the firm from Clifford Chance’s Munich office.
A solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, Bathgate graduated from Christ Church, Oxford, with a first class degree in Law and German Law in 2002, and completed the LPC at Nottingham Law School in 2003. He was admitted as an Attorney of the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands in 2010.
"This is a very exciting time to be joining Mourant Ozannes," says Bathgate. "The firm has
Early estimates indicate the Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index surged ahead in December, posting positive performance of 3.01% for the month.
According to the estimate, which is based on 88 per cent of assets in the index reporting, nine out of ten sectors posted positive performance for the month and the industry is expected to finish up 11.07% for the year.
The Event Driven sector posted the strongest performance in December due primarily to increased opportunities in the special situations arena. The largest gains were seen in the Distressed and Multi-Strategy sub-indices which were up 2.34% and 5.27%
Jorge Villon as has joined Polygon In Vestment Partners as Chief Executive Officer and Partner of the firm. Polygon founders and partners Reade Griffith and Paddy Dear will continue to focus on investment management and strategic initiatives.
“Polygon has evolved from a single manager hedge fund business into a diversified alternative asset management firm with seven different operating businesses on its platform," says Dear. "We will continue to focus on delivering returns to our investors across all our funds and business lines. We believe Jorge’s skills and significant experience will make a major contribution to the company.”
Villon has
The nominal value of European government bond and repo trades cleared by the LCH.Clearnet group in 2010 increased by 28% year on year, a record fuelled by increased demand as banks seek to manage their counterparty risk exposures.
A total of 19 new participants signed up to clear their fixed income business through LCH.Clearnet, taking the total to 70 and resulting in an increased proportion of inter-bank repo trades being cleared.
The total nominal value of fixed income trades cleared by LCH.Clearnet during 2010 reached EUR137 trillion, equating to over EUR500 billion in nominal value cleared daily.
Also in 2010,
With a turnover of EUR48.3 billion on its Zurich and Frankfurt trading platforms in 2010, Scoach remains the highest-volume exchange for structured products in Europe.
The number of trades executed last year at Scoach in Frankfurt rose to 2.5 million – an increase of over 7 percent compared to 2009. The volume of trades for international investors grew by 50 per cent and accounts for more than 12 per cent of total transactions. According to the exchange statistics published by the German Derivatives Association, Scoach has developed above-average in the German market over the past three years.
In 2010, the
In the wake of another strong year of performance, International Standard Asset Management (ISAM), the hedge fund manager led by Stanley Fink and Larry Hite, is bolstering its team with the addition of two high-profile, experienced industry leaders.
Alexander Lowe joins this month as Business Development Director of ISAM, and Riva Waller has been brought in as Chief Operating Officer based in New York. Both formerly worked at Man Group.
Lowe, who was previously CEO of Man Global Strategies (MGS) and Director of Man Investments Ltd from 2006-2009, where he managed a team of 60 people, running over 100 products
The March Vini Catena Fund, managed by March Gestión, the boutique asset manager of Banca March, has achieved a 22.6% return during its first 12 months of trading, beating its reference index MSCI World LC, which returned 7.8% over the same period. In terms of volatility the fund shows 8.5%, well below the index’s 15%.
March Vini Catena is the first global equity fund to invest in a selection of notable companies linked to the production and sales of quality wine with the aim of capitalising on the opportunities they offer. The product seeks to benefit from what the
Dublin-based alternative investment manager, Abbey Capital, has had an interesting year, thanks to investor interest returning to the managed futures space. Hedgeweek took the opportunity last month to speak with Abbey Capital’s Director of Research, Mick Swift (pictured), and Marketing Manager, Katherine Lucey, to gauge their assessment of 2010.
With its range of multi-manager funds covering both the CTA/managed futures and global macro space, the USD2.9billion firm has grown, since it was established in 2000, to become one of the world’s largest independent allocators. “We continue to specialise in managed futures, FX and global macro allocations” explains Swift, who goes
Returns for Credit Suisse’s LAB Liquid Indices suggest that hedge funds experienced positive performance in December according to Jordan Drachman, Head of Research for Alternative Beta Strategies at Credit Suisse.
"The Credit Suisse Liquid Alternative Beta Index posted positive performance in December, finishing up 2.77%," says Drachman. "Overall, all five indices posted positive performance for the month, and each liquid index will finish in positive territory for the year. The Event Driven Liquid Index posted the strongest returns, finishing up 13.66% year-to-date."
