Hedge fund boss gets 6 1/2 years in insider case (Wane)
The co-founder of a Connecticut hedge fund who authorities said made his firm nearly $70 million in illegal profit through insider trading was sentenced Monday to 6 1/2 years in prison. Anthony Chiasson, 39, of Manhattan, had been convicted in December of five counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan also ordered him to pay a $5 million fine. Prosecutors said Chiasson was part of a group of portfolio managers and analysts who got inside information from employees at publicly traded companies.
Star Tech Investor Kevin Landis in Fight for His Job (WSJ)
A one-time technology investing star world is facing a fight to continue running his investment fund. Kevin Landis, the founder and portfolio manager of the Firsthand Technology Value Fund Inc (NASDAQ:SVVC) +0.10%, ran the best-performing mutual fund in the U.S. over the five-year period during the Internet boom. A year ago, he was in demand after snapping up private shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) -0.39% In both cases, his funds eventually endured subsequent slides. Now he has an activist attempting to toss him out of his publicly-traded closed-end fund. Bulldog Investors, a hedge fund run by Phillip Goldstein that operates in the world of closed-end funds, bought a 9.67% stake and launched a campaign targeting Landis in April. Closed-end funds trade like stocks on an exchange.
Moore Capital Adds Mid-Market Lending Firm, Pledges $200M (Finalternatives)
Moore Capital Management is getting into the mid-market lending business. The hedge fund has committed approximately $200 million to the former Cyan Partners, which has been renamed MC Credit—after the hedge fund—and which will operate as an independent affiliate of Moore, Buyouts magazine reports. Cyan became MC this month, and hopes to raise $750 million for a lower mid-market debt fund. Cyan, which was founded by Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) leveraged finance veteran Ashok Nayyar in 2008, has sourced and invested in some $900 million in credit since its debut.
Google Is The New Hedge Fund Hotel, Boeing The Market Darling, And Apple’s Looking Rotten (Forbes)
The 50 largest hedge funds in the world decided to sell Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) -0.74% in the first quarter, replacing it with The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) +0.03% and, interestingly, Norwegian Cruise Holdings which went public in January, according to a report by FactSet. The group of hedge fund heavyweights, which includes the likes of Carl Icahn, David Einhorn, and Dan Loeb, bet on consumer discretionary, which appeared as the most overweight sector, while LyondellBasell Industries NV (NYSE:LYB) was the most overweight equity, compared to its weights in the S&P 500. They shunned the IT sector, and particularly Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which still remains the sixth largest holding by dollar-value. The hedge fund hotel: Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) -0.2%, held by 62% of the 50 largest hedge funds. It was a first big quarter this year. After a rally that started in mid-November around President Obama’s reelection, stocks took off and haven’t stopped since, with the S&P 500 and the Dow continuing to break records and the Nasdaq returning to its post-dotcom-bubble levels.
Gupta Challenges U.S. Wiretaps in Appeal (WSJ)
Rajat Gupta was convicted on insider-trading charges in part due to phone records that showed he finished a conference call with the board of Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) and called a friend who was a hedge-fund manager, who moments later placed a profitable trade on Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) stock. His lawyer argued Tuesday it was merely a coincidence. Mr. Gupta, in a bid to stay out of prison, is trying to convince a federal appeals court to set aside his conviction or at least grant him a new trial. His lawyers say the trial judge was wrong to allow wiretaps of Raj …
Buffett, With His Magic Touch, May Be Irreplaceable (NYTimes)
Acquisitions usually come with a nice premium for the seller. But when Warren E. Buffett is the buyer, there is typically something of a discount. The ability to make acquisitions on favorable terms is a testament to Mr. Buffett’s personality and skills as a deal maker. It also highlights an almost unsolvable problem for his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A), and its shareholders. When its 82-year-old chief executive is gone, who will negotiate such sweet deals? A case in point is the $28 billion buyout of the H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE:HNZ) by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) and a partner, the investment firm 3G Capital. The deal, announced in February, is expected to be completed by the end of the summer.
