Hedge Fund News: Paul Singer, David Einhorn, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B)

Editor’s Note: Related Tickers: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF)

Elliott Tells Clients Money-Losing Gold Still Best Value (Bloomberg)
Elliott Management Corp., the $21.8 billion hedge-fund firm founded by Paul Singer, said gold, a money-losing position for the firm this year, remains the best store of value in an uncertain global economy. “Although our gold position lost money in the quarter and afterward, we remain unconvinced that anything resembling a genuine normalization of global economic and financial conditions has been achieved,” Elliott wrote in an addendum accompanying a first-quarter letter to investors. “There is only one store of value and medium of exchange that has stood the test of time as ‘real money’: gold. We expect this dynamic to assert itself in a large way at some point.” Singer’s firm joins John Paulson’s Paulson & Co. in sticking with gold after bullion slumped into a bear market in April.

Hedge fund manager sentenced in Dell insider trading case (PCWorld)
A former portfolio manager at the now defunct Diamondback Capital Management has been sentenced to 54 months in prison for crimes related to a multimillion dollar insider trading scheme involving computer maker Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) and hardware maker Nvidia. Todd Newman was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Newman and co-defendant Anthony Chiasson, a former portfolio manager and co-founder of Level Global Investors, were convicted of securities fraud charges in December, following a six-week jury trial. Newman was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and four counts of securities fraud. “With today’s sentence, Todd Newman becomes the first member of this corrupt circle of friends to be punished for his conduct,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

Edoma’s Hedayat To Indus, Will Launch Special Situations Fund (FINalternatives)
Former Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) and Edoma Partners trader Ali Hedayat will join hedge fund Indus Capital, six months after Edoma went under. Hedayat will launch a new global special-situations fund at Indus, Financial News reports. That fund is expected to debut within the next few months. Hedayat was a founding partner at Edoma, which was set up by his former boss at Goldman’s proprietary trading operation, Pierre-Henri Flamand. One of the largest and most prominent hedge fund launches of 2010, Edoma closed its doors after just two years, with Flamand citing poor performance and difficult market conditions.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B): Warren Buffett’s Best Investment Ever (Insider Monkey)
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B) has been a huge winner for its long-term shareholders. Between 1965 and 2012, the per-share book value of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has grown 586,817% (no, that’s not a typo). We can chalk a healthy chunk of those outsized returns up to the capital allocation and investing prowess of Berkshire’s CEO, Warren Buffett.
Over the years, Buffett has made a lot of impressive investments on behalf of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B) shareholders; but is it possible that one investment could be slapped with the superlative “best?”

Hedge funds find salvation in Japan’s Abenomics (Financial Times)
If hedge fund managers believed in salvation, then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would be a prime candidate for saviour. For a $2.4tn industry whose returns, for the past four years, have been disappointing at best, and moribund at worst, only one trade has really mattered of late: buying Japan. The soaring Nikkei and plummeting yen – triggered by Mr Abe’s move to precipitate a dramatic change in policy at the Bank of Japan towards…