Pensions Bet Big With Private Equity (WSJ)
On the 13th floor of a sleek downtown office building here, the trading desks are manned overnight. The chief investment officer favors cowboy boots made of elephant skin. And when a bet pays off, even the secretaries can be entitled to bonuses. The office’s occupant isn’t a highflying hedge fund but the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, a public pension fund with 1.3 million members including schoolteachers, bus drivers and cafeteria workers across the state.
FSA bans Swiss fund manager and two traders (CityWire)
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has confirmed bans on a hedge fund manager and two traders for engaging in market abuse. The three men received final notices from the FSA in December 2010 on the grounds they were not fit and proper persons. The three men appealed and the case was referred to the Upper Tribunal. On 28 September 2012 the Upper Tribunal directed the FSA to ban Swiss-based fund manager Stefan Chaligné and traders Patrick Sejean and Cheickh Diallo from performing any major role in regulated financial services.
Illarramendi still going to jail, despite sentencing delay (StamfordAdvocate)
Former Stamford hedge fund manager Francisco Illarramendi won’t face sentencing Friday but he will be going to jail. Illarramendi, who pleaded guilty on March 7, 2011, to wire, securities and investment advisor fraud in federal court, was scheduled to be sentenced on Friday. But his new attorney, hired in November of 2012, filed a motion to delay sentencing so he can go over the mountains of documents from the court proceedings.
Warren Buffett now winning $1m bet against Wall Street (MoneyControl)
For the first time in the five-year history of his “Million-Dollar Bet” against the “experts” of Wall Street, Warren Buffett is now in the lead. Back in 2008, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman made a 10-year wager with Protege partner Ted Seides. Buffett put his money on a low-cost S&P stock index fund from Vanguard. Seides backed five funds of hedge funds. …The strategy with the best return at the end of 2017, including the costs associated with the funds, will be the winner, with a guaranteed $1 million going to either Buffett’s designated charity (Girls Inc of Omaha) or Seides’ (Absolute Returns for Kids.)
Bill Ackman Fires Back at Icahn: ‘He Does Not Keep His Word’ (StreetInsider)
In response to comments made today by Carl Icahn on Bloomberg Television, William A. Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P. (“Pershing Square”) today issued the following statement. “On March 1, 2003, on behalf of my former fund, Gotham Partners, I entered into a contract with Carl Icahn, signed by him, to sell him a 15% stake in Hallwood Realty Partners. He paid my investors $80 per share and agreed to what he called ‘schmuck insurance.’ The agreement provided that he would pay my investors an earnout equal to 50% of his profit on Hallwood after he received a 10% annual return if he “sold or otherwise transferred” his shares for value within three years. Fewer than 13 months later on April 14, 2004, HRPT Property Trust acquired Hallwood. As a result, Carl and the other Hallwood shareholders received $136.16 per share in cash for their shares.
