Hedge Funds Received Illegal Inside Information From Henry Paulson

Bloomberg reports that hedge funds received illegal inside information from Henry Paulson. We aren’t surprised a tiny bit. Ordinary investors don’t have access to insiders like Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson who decided what needed to be done to failing Fannie and Freddie. What Paulson did isn’t illegal because he didn’t himself trade based on that information or benefited in any shape or form. If SEC wants to prosecute Paulson, they need to prove that Paulson did benefit from this strange form of information sharing.

The reason we follow insiders and hedge fund managers is because they have information and expertise that ordinary investors don’t have. Outsiders can enjoy above market returns by focusing on their top investments.

Anyway, here are the hedge funds that received illegal inside information from Henry Paulson (Bloomberg doesn’t know whether they acted on this information):

1. Eton Park Capital

2. Lone Pine Capital

3. TPG-Axon Capital

4. Och-Ziff Capital

5. Daniel Stern of Reservoir Capital Group

6. Taconic Capital Advisors

7. Kynikos Associates

8. Roger Altman of Evercore Partners

9. Steven Rattner of Quadrangle Group