A Collector Changes Course (NYTimes)
Until very recently, Adam D. Sender was riding high. A hedge fund manager and a regular on the contemporary art circuit, he had big dreams and a bank account to match. Since 1998, with the help of the art adviser Todd Levin and several seasoned Chelsea dealers, he has put together a collection of about 800 works by 139 artists, a Who’s Who of contemporary art. It has seminal works by John Baldessari, Urs Fischer, Dan Flavin, Martin Kippenberger, Mike Kelley, Barbara Kruger, Richard Prince, Raymond Pettibon, Elizabeth Peyton, Charles Ray, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman and Rosemarie Trockel, to name a few.
SEC Charges Two In Insider Trading Deal Where Middleman Ate The Evidence (HedgeCo)
A stockbroker and a managing clerk at a hedge fund law firm have been charged with insider trading and making illicit profits of $5.6 million during a four-year period, Reuters reports. Vladimir Eydelman and Steven Metro were linked through a mutual friend who acted as a middleman in the illegal trading scheme, the SEC says. Metro obtained nonpublic information, then tipped the middleman during meetings at a New York City coffee shop…
Dominique Strauss-Kahn raising $2bn for hedge fund (Telegraph)
Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn plans to raise $2bn for a macro hedge fund. The venture marks Mr Strauss-Kahn’s first partnership with an asset manager for the DSK Global Investment Fund that will invest globally, Mohamad Zeidan, the firm’s chief operating officer, told Reuters. Mr Strauss-Kahn will manage the fund with his daughter and economist, Vanessa Strauss-Kahn, and is currently on a trip to China to raise capital for the hedge fund from institutional investors and wealthy individuals.
Time to stop hating on Wall Street (CNBC)
In the wake of the financial crisis, insider trading, Ponzi schemes and other scandals, it’s become commonplace to bash Wall Street. I should open a piñata store specializing in papier-mâché bankers, traders and hedge-fund managers. I’ll fill them with bitcoins. It’s got to be a high margin/low cost business. Do an Internet search for “Wall Street is evil” and it turns up 67 MILLION results. That’s a lot of piñatas. Look, I understand there’s a lot to be angry about. But how does that old saying go? Something about a book and its cover?…
Odey lures tech research head from BAML (eFinancialNews)
The hedge fund has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s head of European technology research Didier Scemema, according to three people familiar with the situation. Scemema, who spent 13 years with ABN Amro and Royal Bank of Scotland before moving to BAML two years ago, is working his notice at the US bank and will leave on May 21, according to one of the people. Scemema did not return messages seeking comment. Founder Crispin Odey’s $2.4 billion Odey European fund was up 25.8% last year, after gaining 30.7% in 2012…
Hedge Fund Uses Hitler Parody in Campaign Against Ocwen Chairman (NYTimes)
If you’re looking for a little attention, it’s hard to go wrong with Hitler. Glaucus Research, a little-known hedge fund in California, has started an attack on the billionaire William C. Erbey, the chairman of Ocwen Financial, and to publicize its efforts, it has posted a video on YouTube based on the widely parodied German film “Downfall.” The video features a frantic Hitler in a war room during the final days of his reign, with a subtitled conversation about two of Mr. Erbey’s publicly listed companies to convey the firm’s argument that the walls are closing in on his loan and mortgage-servicing empire.
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