Billionaire Grudge Match Nears As Tom Steyer Talks Up Taking On Trump For The White House (Forbes)
Billionaire investor Tom Steyer looks set to enter the race for the Democratic nomination, and the ticket to take on President Donald Trump in 2020. According to a report by Politico, Steyer held a private conference call last week to announce he was planning to run. The call brought together staff at Steyer’s Need to Impeach petition, his NextGen America environmental advocacy nonprofit, and his Sacramento office. Steyer, a billionaire hedge fund manager, environmentalist, and a vocal critic of Donald Trump, spent 26 years running hedge fund Farallon Capital, but sold his stake in 2012 to focus on politics.
Financier Epstein Pleads Not Guilty to U.S. Charges of Sex Trafficking (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – American financier Jeffrey Epstein pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of sex trafficking as prosecutors accused him of luring dozens of girls as young as 14 to his luxury homes in New York and Florida and paying them for sex acts. An indictment unsealed in federal court in Manhattan accused Epstein, 66, of arranging for girls to perform nude “massages” and other sex acts, and paying some girls to recruit others, from at least 2002 to 2005. The former hedge fund manager “intentionally sought out minors and knew that many of his victims were in fact under the age of 18, including because, in some instances, minor victims expressly told him their age,” the indictment said.
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Crypto Asset Manager Granted AIFM Approval/ (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Prime Factor Capital, a London-based asset manager specialised in cryptocurrencies, has been authorised by the UK’s financial markets regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as an Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM). This is the first dedicated crypto asset manager to have been granted this status from UK regulators. Prime Factor Capital was founded in 2017 by Nic Niedermowwe, who previously worked as an energy derivatives trader at German utility RWE, and Michael Wong, who spent 11 years at BlackRock. The asset manager seeks to provide solutions for professional investors seeking exposure to cryptocurrencies.
Opalesque Roundup: All Hedge Fund Strategies Show Sweet Gains in June: Hedge Fund News, Week 25 (Opalesque.com)
In the week ending July 5th, 2019, Lyxor said that all hedge funds strategies delivered positive returns in June 2019 – L/S Equity Directional, L/S Credit and Market Neutral L/S outperformed. CTAs outperformed in June (+2.8%) due to their long equity / long fixed income positioning. Meanwhile, Brevan Howard Asset Management‘s flagship hedge fund returned 3.9% in June, capping off its best first half since 2009. The Master Fund is up 9.3% in the first six months, building on a 12.4% gain in 2018. It has emerged as one of the big winners from this year’s steep plunge in US government bond yields, as the hedge fund continued its turnaround after years of lacklustre performance and client withdrawals. Further in performance news, Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund, posted returns for 2018 that not only outperformed benchmark indexes for various asset classes, but also many of its peers and Dan Loeb‘s Third Point capped a strong second quarter with another gain in June as its Third Point Offshore fund rose 3.8 percent in June.
Fosun Moves on London-based Investment Manager (PitchBook.com)
Investment and asset management conglomerate Fosun has acquired a majority holding in Tenax Capital. The deal seals the Chinese investor a London-based hedge fund manager with a focus on the ILS and reinsurance sector and around €1 billion of assets under management.
White Paper Calls for Hedge Funds to Spend More on Automation (FinExtra.com)
Truss Edge, the fintech platform specializing in the automation of critical trading, reporting and data processing tasks within hedge funds, has today released the results of its 2019 white paper on Hedge Fund Portfolio Management Systems. The white paper is based on feedback from 50 fund services providers and hedge funds from around the world. Hedge funds, administrators, custodians, law firms, fund platforms and consultants in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific region provided their thoughts on the purchase and deployment of portfolio management and reporting technology during Q1 2019.
MSD Capital Analyst to Forfeit $2.8 Million for Insider Trading (Bloomberg Law)
An investment analyst who made $1.6 million on an insider trading scheme must forfeit $2.8 million, the Second Circuit said July 8. The forfeiture includes the appreciation of the funds John Afriyie made off his scheme, as required by law, the opinion by Judge Rosemary S. Pooler said. Afriyie worked for MSD Capital, which possessed material nonpublic information about Apollo Global Management’s acquisition of home security firm ADT Corp. After accessing the MNPI, Afriyie bought ADT call options.
Monday 7/8 Insider Buying Report: PRSP, ACER (Nasdaq.com)
On Wednesday, Perspecta’s Director, Philip O. Nolan, made a $100,331 purchase of PRSP, buying 4,366 shares at a cost of $22.98 each. Nolan was up about 4.9% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with PRSP trading as high as $24.10 at last check today. Perspecta is trading up about 1.2% on the day Monday. Before this latest buy, Nolan purchased PRSP at 3 other times during the past twelve months, for a total investment of $302,288 at an average of $22.07 per share. And at Acer Therapeutics, there was insider buying on Wednesday, by Director Steve Aselage who purchased 5,000 shares at a cost of $3.72 each, for a trade totaling $18,581. Acer Therapeutics is trading up about 0.9% on the day Monday. Bargain hunters are able to pick up ACER at a price even lower than Aselage did, with shares trading as low as $3.28 in trading on Monday – that’s 11.7% below Aselage’s purchase price.
The EVP & CFO of Greif Inc (NYSE: GEF) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the EVP & CFO of Greif Inc (GEF), Lawrence Hilsheimer, bought shares of GEF for $165.7K. Following this transaction Lawrence Hilsheimer’s holding in the company was increased by 15.39% to a total of $4.79 million. In addition to Lawrence Hilsheimer, 3 other GEF executives reported Buy trades in the last month. Based on Greif Inc’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending April 30, the company posted quarterly revenue of $1.21 billion and quarterly net profit of $13.6 million.
Senior Compliance Officer and Trader Imprisoned for Insider Dealing Following FCA investigation (NatLawReview.com)
At the end of last month a senior compliance officer at UBS AG (“UBS“) and her financial securities trader associate were each sentenced to three years imprisonment for five offences of insider dealing, following successful criminal proceedings brought by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA“). Confiscation proceeding are also being pursued against both defendants.
Kenya: CMA Penalizes Kestrel Ex-CEO and Aly Khan Satchu for Insider Trading (AllAfrica.com)
Former Chief Executive Officer Kestrel Capital East Africa Andre Desimone will pay a penalty of Sh2,500,000 following his involvement in insider trading on KenolKobil shares in the period before the takeover announcement was made public in October 2018. This comes after the Capital Markets Authority constituted an Ad Hoc Board Committee for the sole purpose of hearing and determining the allegations on the suspicion’s trades in KenolKobil shares and to prescribe sanctions.
