Shocker: An Appeals Court Just Granted Argentina The Right To Fight Hedge Fund Managers Another Day

They said it couldn't be done (or that it was highly unlikely).  But, Great Caesar's Ghost,  an Appeals Court has granted the group of bond holders that restructured Argentine debt (exchange bond holders) the right to challenge Judge Thomas Griesa's ruling that Argentina must pay bond holders that didn't restructure, or so Bloomberg reports.

For ADD sufferers and those of you who haven't been tuned into the financial soap opera this is a huge victory for Argentina, and it's a loss for billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer and other bond holders of the country's 2001 sovereign debt working with him....

More?  Check out http://www.businessinsider.com/argentinas-stay-on-payment-granted-2012-11

SAC Capital Advisors notified that SEC may bring insider trading charges against the firm

Steve Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors has received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission, suggesting the regulator may bring civil charges of insider trading against the hedge fund firm, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The $14 billion hedge fund firm held a phone call with investors on Wednesday morning to inform them of the notice, the source said. (A Wells notice indicates that SEC staff would recommend a civil enforcement action against the firm.)   Cohen, who founded the firm, has not been accused of wrongdoing. He was on the telephone call on Wednesday morning, the source said.

This is the first time the government has indicated it may move against the hedge fund firm itself on insider trading, after previously accusing only former SAC employees.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/insider_capital_advisors_notified_hfuM3jpR9jWCRJndjN8rMN

Harvard doctor turned hedge fund felon lured by ambition, riches

According to Bloomberg from the age of six, Joseph F. “Chip” Skowron III aspired to be a doctor. At Yale, he earned both a medical degree and a doctorate in molecular and cellular biology, then qualified for Harvard’s elite, five-year residency program. Three years in, Skowron quit medicine for Wall Street. He and two partners started a group of health-care investment funds under the auspices of FrontPoint Partners LLC, a hot new property in the exploding world of hedge funds.

Skowron was soon making millions of dollars a year. He built a gabled, 10,000-square-foot home on three acres in the nation’s hedge-fund capital, Greenwich, Connecticut. He assembled a small fleet of pricey cars, including a 2006 Aston Martin Vanquish and a 2009 Alfa Romeo Spider 8C. He also spent vacation time engaged in Third World humanitarian causes.

Today, Skowron, 43, is serving a five-year term for insider trading at the federal prison at Minersville, Pennsylvania. At FrontPoint, Skowron lied to his bosses and law enforcement authorities, cost more than 35 people their jobs and stooped to slipping envelopes of cash to an accomplice. FrontPoint is gone. Morgan Stanley, which once owned FrontPoint, is seeking more than $65 million from Skowron, whose net worth a year ago was $22 million. Until he’s a free man, his wife of 16 years will have to care for their four children and Rocky, their golden retriever, on her own…..

More schadenfreud anyone?  Check out http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2012/11/harvard_doctor_turned_hedge_fu.html

Hedge funds face big profit headache in 2013

Yes folks read it and weep.  Hedge funds' glory days seem a long way off as they head into a tricky 2013, with bumper profits likely to remain elusive in markets now dominated by political and central bank action. At least if you can believe Reuters.

Speakers at the Reuters Global Investment 2013 Outlook Summit said the $2 trillion industry, which has disappointed investors with below-market returns this year and losses last year, faces a headache making money in an environment where markets are choppy and not as buoyant.

Hedge funds made double-digit returns in seven out of nine years between 1991 and 1999, according to Hedge Fund Research's HFRI index, and made returns of more than 9 percent every year between 2003 and 2007 inclusive amid rising markets. However, their secret sauce of 'alpha' - profits due to a manager's skill rather than overall market moves - has been hard to find in the 'risk-on, risk-off' environment where markets can be more influenced by the words of euro zone politicians and central bankers than companies' fundamentals….

Grab a fresh hankie and go to http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/27/us-investment-summit-hedgefunds-idUSBRE8AQ15U20121127

Analyst: Level Global Boss Knew Of Insider Info

Level Global Investors LP founder Anthony Chiasson knew his hedge fund used corporate insiders to obtain information, an analyst testified Tuesday at Chiasson's trial for insider trading in Dell Inc. and other technology stocks.

Chiasson was briefed on a string of sources that went back to within Austin, Texas-based Dell — connections the now-defunct hedge fund exploited to make a major short ahead of a market-disappointing earnings announcement in August 2008, Spyridon “Sam” Adondakis told jurors in Manhattan…..

Read all about it at http://www.law360.com/articles/396939/level-global-boss-knew-of-insider-info-analyst-testifies

Accused Hedge Fund Fraudster Frozen

A federal judge has frozen the assets of a hedge fund and its manager after the Securities and Exchange Commission accused them of misappropriating assets and misleading investors, finalternatives writes.

The SEC sued Berton Hochfeld and his Hochfeld Capital earlier this month. The regulator said that Hochfeld had stolen some $1.3 million of the at least $6 million he raised, using some of it to buy a collection of antiques. Hochfeld, who was arrested on Nov. 9 on fraud charges, allegedly kept clients of his Heppelwhite Fund in the dark with a series of bogus account statements.

Hochfeld also allegedly violated a 2006 SEC ban from the industry—a ban that he allegedly neglected to tell Heppelwhite investors about…..

Get the whole picture at https://www.finalternatives.com/node/22190

Greek debt deal turns hedge fund trade to gold

Go figure. For a few hedge funds, Greek debt is turning into one of the trades of the year.

According to Reuters news that Athens - backed by euro zone ministers and the International Monetary Fund - will buy back some its own debt from private investors sets a floor under the price of its bonds, handing many who picked them up at rock-bottom levels big gains.

The funds - which include Daniel Loeb's Third Point - have spent months building up positions in the debt-beleaguered country's bonds, rightly betting that their price would rise as the risk of a Greek exit from the euro zone receded.

Some have already banked profits from that bet, but indications Athens will target a cost of around 35 cents on the euro in its buyback plan, if successful, is a boon for those still holding the bonds…..

Read all about it at http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/27/us-hedge-funds-greece-idUSBRE8AQ15D20121127