Hedge Fund Reader : Philadelphia-based hedge funds wreck global havoc

October 13, 2005

Philadelphia-based hedge funds wreck global havoc

Hedge funds are famously shrouded in secrecy and offshore tax havens to shelter their investments from public scrutiny. However, whenever any of the funds go bust the theory of regulating the funds creates a major furor. A recent blow-up of the troubled Philadelphia Alternative Asset Management Co., LLC has created international legal tangles. The U.S. District Judge Mr. John Padova appointed Mr. C. Clark Hodgson Jr., a partner in the law firm Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP this summer to manage the company's assets while the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigated $179 million in estimated losses from the funds. A court-appointed receiver in Philadelphia is battling British investors; Cayman Island lawyers; and banks from France, Switzerland and the Netherlands over the left over corpus of $275 million which is invested since 2004 in three hedge funds run by the company from its former offices in King of Prussia and Toronto. And these paramount issues were not enough, the bankers and lenders in Europe gave the legal battle a new turn, by deviating the legal process to the Cayman Islandjurisdiction and appointing a new court appointed legal counsel. It is yet to be seen the outcome of this battle, but sure seems one to be watched out for. Philly.com Reports:

The European custodians were supported in their Cayman petition by two hedge-fund managers that had invested in Philadelphia Alternative Asset Management Co., MB Absolute Return Fund Ltd., which has an office in New York, and Britain-based Fortune Funds Ltd. MB has since dropped out of the proceeding. But in an affidavit supporting the Cayman petition, Fortune managing director Simon Hopkins detailed his concerns about the Philadelphia receiver.

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October 13, 2005 in Gossip & Scandal, Regulation | Permalink