Hedge Fund terms A-Z
EXCERPT:
A portion of the Investment Company Act of 1940 that permits the exclusion of investment companies from standard registration requirements with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) if they have fewer than 100 U.S. investors.
ABack to topAbsolute Return
The return that an asset achieves over a certain period of time. This measure looks at the appreciation or depreciation (expressed as a percentage) that an asset - usually a stock or a mutual fund - achieves over a given period of time. Absolute...
Absolute Return Index
A stock index designed to measure absolute returns. The absolute return index is actually a composite index made up of five other indexes. This index is used to compare the absolute returns posted by the hedge fund market as a whole against...
Agency Problem
A conflict of interest arising between creditors, shareholders and management because of differing goals.
Airbag Swap
An interest rate swap whose notional value adjusts according to rising interest rates by indexing the floating portion to a constant maturity swap (CMS).
Alternative Asset
Any non-traditional asset with potential economic value that would not be found in a standard investment portfolio. Due to the unconventional nature of alternative assets, valuation of some of these assets can be difficult.
Alternative Investment
An investment that is not one of the three traditional asset types (stocks, bonds and cash). Most alternative investment assets are held by institutional investors or accredited, high-net-worth individuals because of their complex nature, limited...

CalPers big lawsuit
EXCERPT:
May 6, 2010
Big lawsuit in CalPERS scandal

California officials filed a fraud suit against the former chief executive of CalPERS and his close friend, a former pension fund board member turned placement agent, in an explosive new twist in the influence-peddling scandal that's been simmering at CalPERS for months.

The lawsuit by Attorney General Jerry Brown says former CalPERS CEO Fred Buenrostro accepted thousands of dollars worth of gifts from Alfred Villalobos, a former CalPERS board member who has earned tens of millions of dollars as a placement agent. These agents are hired by private equity firms to obtain investments from public pension funds such as the California Public Employees' Retirement System.

Among other things, the suit says Villalobos "substantially subsidized" the cost of Buenrostro's 2004 wedding at Villalobos' Lake Tahoe mansion - an incident first reported by The Bee last fall. Buenrostro has said he reimbursed his host.

The suit demands the return of at least $70 million in commissions earned by Villalobos over the years from CalPERS investments.

Departure not connected Buenrostro
EXCERPT:
The resignation of the CEO of California's public employee retirement system, announced Monday, was its second high-level departure in less than a week, prompting speculation about turmoil at the $240 billion pension fund.

Still, the retirement of Chief Executive Officer Fred Buenrostro Jr. is a personal matter that's not part of a broader management shakeup at the California Public Employees' Retirement System, board members and outside experts said Tuesday.

Buenrostro said Monday that he is retiring at a date still to be determined after 5 1/2 years as CalPERS' top executive. The announcement followed by a few days disclosure of the departure of Russell Read, the fund's chief investment officer, who said he is leaving in June to focus on environmentally friendly investing.


Hedge Funds v Porsche
EXCERPT:
US hedge funds are taking legal action against Porsche in a New York court for allegedly manipulating stock prices during its 2008 takeover tangle with Volkswagen. Public prosecutors in Stuttgart are investigating too.

Traders and hedge fund managers hate the weekends because they can't take react immediately to corporate announcements until trading floors reopen on Monday.

Sunday, October 26, 2008 was a particularly bad day for 35 American hedge funds. That was the day German sports carmaker Porsche announced that it owned 42.6 percent of Volkswagen's common stock and options for another 31.5 percent - bringing its total stake in the company to 74.1 percent. The announcement then declared Porsche was seeking to obtain 75 percent of VW shares - a plan that eventually backfired.

India-Cricket
EXCERPT:
Modernisation was equated with the privileging of the private sector and maximising profits.

In this lay the seeds of the scandal that has transformed the way people look at the tournament. It's the private franchising that created the morass that's now under investigation. Among the allegations are bribery, kickbacks, insider trading, tax evasion, money laundering, offshore tax scams and violations of foreign exchange regulations. Behind all these manoeuvres lies a tangle of conflicts of interest, with IPL and BCCI officials and their relatives financially involved in the private franchises and the broadcasting-rights holders. It's a web that involves government ministers, the CEOs of some of India biggest corporations, media powers and Bollywood stars.

Definition of side pockets
What Does Side Pocket Mean?
A type of account used in hedge funds to separate illiquid assets from other more liquid investments. Once an investment enters a side pocket account, only the present participants in the hedge fund will be entitled to a share of it. Future investors will not receive a share of the proceeds in the event the asset's returns get realized.

Investopedia explains Side Pocket
Investors who leave the hedge fund will still receive a share of the side pocket's value when it gets realized. Usually only the most illiquid assets, such as delisted shares of a company, receive this type of treatment, because holding illiquid assets in a standard hedge fund portfolio can cause a great deal of complexity when investors liquidate their position. Overall, side pocket accounts resemble single asset private equity funds in structure.

Joe Biden't tangled web of hedge funds
EXCERPT:
By lostincali in MLP
Sun May 03, 2009 at 09:39:42 AM EST
Tags: Joe Biden, hedge funds, political influence (all tags)
FT Alphaville, a blog run by the Financial Times, is running a three part series on the dealings surrounding a hedge fund management company purchased by the Biden family in 2006. The upshot: no allegations directly linking Biden to corruption, but good dose of lobbying sleaze, nepotism, an opportunistic asbestos/mesothelioma law firm, indirect links to fraudulent financial entities and more conflicts of interest than you can shake a stick at.

Placing for paradigm (Biden)
EXCERPT:
The whole Biden/Paradigm affair also links back to the murky – though largely legitimate – world of pension fund placement agents so much in the news of late.

In this case, it shows how people as politically well-connected as James and Hunter Biden might once have hoped to use their political knowledge to great effect in the hedge fund business.

Hedge funds and Enron
EXCERPT:
1. Side Pockets: A way to move toxic holdings "Off Balance Sheet," to a netherland, hidden from investors and perhaps regulators. This lack of transparency does not exactly comply with truth-in-reporting to your investors or FASB accounting standards.

Sound familiar? It should: It's remarkably similar to Enron Off Balance Sheet Special Partnerships. The WSJ's Scott Patterson went into the details last week:

Even if Bear's pain spreads through the market, other hedge-fund investors might not feel it, at least right away. Sometimes, hedge funds move big pieces of their holdings into separate accounts known as side pockets to keep declining assets from hurting a main fund's performance record -- and managers' wallets. They can also block investors from cashing out.

2. Mark-to-Model: The similarities to Kenny boy's outfit don't end there: What do we do with illiquid holdings where the fund is both the buyer and seller, and the parent company is the buyer of last resort? Unlike most mutual and hedge funds, who mark-to-market based upon the closing price of their assets, holders of these CDOs get to indulge their "creative" side. Instead of writing the great American novel, they derive a model that optimistically prices these illiquid assets.

Astarra shares Hong Kong link to broking scandal
EXCERPT:
Stuart Washington
January 5, 2010

A COMPANY under investigation over the whereabouts of $118 million in funds channelled through the British Virgin Islands shared a Hong Kong address with a firm linked to one of Britain's biggest stockbroking scandals.

The address given for Astarra Asset Management's Hong Kong-based owner, Century Investments Holdings, matches the address given by Zetland Financial Services Group until late 2008.

Zetland and its chief executive, James Sutherland, were named in the British press as the Hong Kong-based owners of Pacific Continental Securities, a British broker that used high-pressure, ''boiler room'' tactics to sell risky and sometimes worthless US shares to British investors.

PCCW
EXCERPT:
Corporate history
PCCW was formed by Richard Li, the younger son of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka Shing. Formerly Pacific Century Development, it was an investment holding company. The company's English name was changed from "Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited" to "PCCW Limited" on 9 August 2002.

It then won a controversial land deal, acquiring valuable waterfront real estate from the government without any public auction bids. Many in Hong Kong cried cronyism, as the Hong Kong Government, under chief executive Tung Chee Hwa, gave away the land to his new high-tech residential and commercial venture called Cyberport.[9]

Li Ka shing
EXCERPT:
Pyramid structure
Like many Asian conglomerates, the Li Ka-shing group is structured to retain disproportionate control without incurring the cost of owning an equivalent economic interest. This separation between control and interest is accomplished through pyramid structure, dual-class equities and cross-holdings.[citation needed] While such structures are rarer in the US and UK, they do exist. For instance, Google uses a dual-class structure to give its founders and insiders 10 votes for each class-B share while the general public is offered class-A shares with 1 vote each.

[edit] Internet
His investment company, Horizon Ventures bought a stake in doubleTwist.[16] Li Ka Shing Foundation bought a 0.8% stake in social networking website Facebook for $120 million in two separate rounds.[17][18] and invested an estimated $50 million in music streaming service Spotify.[19] Some time between late 2009 and early 2010, Li Ka-shing led a $15.5 million Series B round of financing for Siri, an artificial intelligence based virtual personal assistant application for the iPhone.[20]

[edit] Others
Besides business through his flagship companies Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, Li Ka-shing also personally has extensively invested in real estate in Singapore and Canada. He was the single largest shareholder of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), the third largest bank in Canada until the sale of his share in 2005 (with all proceedings donated, see below). He is also the majority shareholder of a major energy company, Husky Energy, based in Alberta, Canada.[21]

In January 2005, Li announced plans to sell his $1.2 billion CAD stake in the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, with all proceeds going to private charitable foundations established by Li including the Li Ka Shing Foundation in Hong Kong and the Li Ka Shing (Canada) Foundation based in Toronto, Canada.[22]

Li has some real estate interest in Vancouver, specifically in connection with Concord Pacific Developments that developed the old Expo '86 lands in Yaletown.[citation

THE SATANIC BLOODLINES
Introduction

1.1. The Astor Bloodline
2.2. The Bundy Bloodline
3.3. The Collins Bloodline
4.4. The DuPont Bloodline
5.5. The Freeman Bloodline
6.6. The Kennedy Bloodline
7.7. The Li Bloodline
8.8. The Onassis Bloodline
9.9. The Reynolds bloodline
110. The Rockefeller Bloodline
11. The Rothschild Bloodline
12. The Russell Bloodline
13. The Van Duyn Bloodline