VP Biden hedge fund scandal why there's nothing anyone can do to prevent it
EXCERPT:
May 2, 2009
If Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme wasn’t enough to get some investors fired up over hedge fund regulation, then the Vice President’s “hedge fund hotel” scandal is sure to do it.

Ponta Negra Capital: The Black Hole

A hedge fund Ponzi scheme scandal is breaking in the blogosphere - and it goes right to the top of political power. A little while ago, blogger John Hempton, who writes Bronte Capital, a finance blog, started sniffing around Connecticut-based hedge fund Ponta Negra. Hempton didn’t like what he found. After legal threats from the fund’s lawyers, Hempton retreated until a court ordered a freeze on the assets of Ponta Negra fund manager Francesco Rusciano amid allegations he lied to investors to raise more than $30 million. After that, the blogger published his findings.

Bidens of hedge funds hair plugs
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Lotito advised the Bidens that the best man to create LBB from a legal perspective was John Fasciana, purported to be "the best in the business." What the Bidens didn't know about Fasciana was they he was a convicted felon awaiting sentencing for a massive fraud: a federal jury had earlier found that Fasciana helped others steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from IT outsourcer EDS by pinching checks sent to the company and then laundering the funds through Fasciana's attorney trust account.

But, at the time, the Bidens claimed to be unaware of the suspect activities swirling around Fasciana (and, apparently, the existence of a research tool called Google).

Dark privatised social security story and Joe Biden's business
EXCERPT:
Saturday, January 2, 2010
A dark privatised social security story: Astarra, the missing money and how examining a fund manager owned by Joe Biden’s family led to substantial regulatory action in Australia

Bronte sleuth finds ponzi link to Biden
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And after the Bidens took over, it launched a joint venture with the cricket-loving Texas billionaire Allen Stanford's outfit, called the Paradigm Stanford Core Alternatives Fund.

Astarra shares Hong Kong link to broking scandal
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Calls to Mr Sutherland and Astarra Asset Management's administrator, Ian Purchas, were not returned yesterday.

Astarra Asset Management was investment manager for $426 million in funds of the fund manager Trio Capital of Albury, including its flagship fund Astarra Strategic, which had $118 million invested in international hedge funds.

Authorities froze the funds in mid-October and took effective control shortly before Christmas.

On another front, the Bronte Capital blogger John Hempton, who blew the whistle on concerns related to Astarra Strategic, said he first looked at Astarra because of its purported links to a US hedge fund, Paradigm Global.

Paradigm Global, an investor in funds of hedge funds, is owned by Hunter Biden, the son of the US Vice-President, Joe Biden, and James Biden, the Vice-President's brother.

The link to Astarra was made through the appearance of Charles Provini's biography on an Astarra website, saying he was chief executive of Paradigm Global and Astarra's US asset consultant. Mr Provini was not chief executive of Paradigm at the time the online biography appeared.

Washington Post on Hunter Biden's Paradigm
EXCERPT:
The legal actions have been playing out in New York State Supreme Court since 2007, and they focus on Hunter and James Biden's involvement in Paradigm Companies LLC, a hedge fund group. Hunter Biden, a Washington lobbyist, briefly served as president of the firm.

Francesco Rusciano
Francesco Rusciano is a 27-year-old hedge fund manager from Connecticut who gave falsified information to a selling agent, at least twice increasing the asset amounts listed in his funds by using white out.HedgeFund.net: SEC Alleges Hedge Fund Fraud Done With White Out (May 2, 2009)2

Rusciano's hedge funds are marketed out of the office of Paradigm Global—a fund of hedge funds owned and controlled by Hunter Biden and James Biden, the son and brother of Vice President Joe Biden. The Bidens are not implicated in any wrong-doing; Rusciano shared an office and office equipment with them.BNET: VP Biden Hedge Fund Scandal... (May 2, 2009)3

Fraud and the SEC
At the time of his arrest on May 1, 2009, Francesco Rusciano was under federal investigation involving an alleged $30 million fraud. He is accused of raising money for two hedge funds by overstating the amounts in his funds and by misrepresenting his background, experience, and past performance.ConnPost.com: FBI arrests Stamford hedge fund manager (May 2, 2009)1

Rusciano is being charged in a federal court in Texas. Charges against him say that he performed "marginally" at USB with a "modest sum" and lost millions for the company. Marketing materials he developed for the Ponte Negra funds claimed he had managed a USB portfolio of more than $1 billion and quadrupled profits for them.ConnPost.com: FBI arrests Stamford hedge fund manager (May 2, 2009)1 HedgeFund.net: SEC Alleges Hedge Fund Fraud Done With White Out (May 2, 2009)2

Bidens fund got seed money millions from 8 billion defrauder Stanford, what was VP Joe's role
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By Debbie Schlussel
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that this isn’t front page news. After all, the media has to protect the Veep of the Obamessiah.
Still, for those not interested in being shielded, it should be headline news that a fund operated by Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and his brother, James, had millions of dollars worth of dealings with Stanford Financial Group and another Stanford-controlled entity. In fact, Stanford entities provided the Bidens the seed money for their business and invested millions in and brought many clients (and their money) to the Bidens’ company.

A fund of hedge funds run by two members of Vice President Joe Biden’s family was marketed exclusively by companies controlled by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, who is facing Securities and Exchange Commission accusations of engaging in an $8 billion fraud.

Australia's own Madoff affair
Australia's own Madoff affair?
March 21, 2010 3:01 PM Subscribe
An Australian Madoff? Trio Capital, an Australian fund manager, has been ordered to wind up its funds after being unable to account for $123 million in its Astarra fund since investigations began in October. The fund "has a total of $426 million under management - including superannuation savings of about 10,000 Australians." Some worry what this means for more potential frauds in Australia's "privatized social security."

The Syndey Morning Herald has more: the initial scrutiny, the whistleblower, the fears, hope fades.

John Hempton, blogger and hedge fund manager based in Australia, notified the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in September. He outlined his story of delving into the problems in a January post, explaining to non-Australians how the Superannuation system (privatized Social Security) makes this fraud a significantly bigger story.

Dominck McCormick, the fund manager who initially tipped Hempton, has written a fantastic summary of what red flags existed, the role of due diligence, and how the financial planning industry can move forward.

Hempton has an eye for frauds. He previously tussled with hedge fund Ponta Negra, whose manager recently plead guilty to defrauding investors. Ponta Negra shared an office and marketer with Paradigm Global, a fund of hedge funds owned by the son and brother of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. Hempton had found connections between Paradigm and other questionable funds. This included several connections to eccentric Allen Stanford's Stanford Financial Group, which remains frozen and under investigation for fraud. Hempton first investigated Astarra because of its connections to Paradigm.

Other links at Hempton's blog discussing Astarra: Astarra Marketing, Submission to the Superannualtion review discussing industry structure and regulations, The Regulator's Culpability, Debating accusations of jealousy.

(Hempton was previously linked to on the blue for an interesting index proposal)
posted by FuManchu (10 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite

Bidens and Allen Stanford
EXCERPT:
A fund of hedge funds run by two members of Vice President Joe Biden's family was marketed exclusively by companies controlled by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, who is facing Securities and Exchange Commission accusations of engaging in an $8 billion fraud.

The $50 million fund was jointly branded between the Bidens' Paradigm Global Advisors LLC and a Stanford Financial Group entity and was known as the Paradigm Stanford Capital Management Core Alternative Fund. Stanford-related companies marketed the fund to investors and also invested about $2.7 million of their own money in the fund, according to a lawyer for Paradigm. Paradigm Global Advisors is owned through a holding company by the vice president's son, Hunter, and Joe Biden's brother, James.