Hedge Fund Information

FBI, Jul 06, 2007

Hedge funds are minimally regulated private investment partnerships that historically accept only high-wealth investors. The theory behind their creation was that high-wealth investors are "financially sophisticated" and therefore did not need or want to incur the additional administrative expense of reporting to a regulatory agency. The label "hedge fund" is not a specific legal term, but rather is used to describe an investment vehicle with great flexibility in the investment strategies it can adopt; many of these strategies are unavailable to traditional mutual funds. Hedge funds can invest in equities, bonds, options, futures, commodities, arbitrage and derivative contracts, as well as illiquid investments such as real estate. This gives hedge funds the potential to profit in times of market volatility. Hedge fund managers are compensated on a contingency-based fee structure, which typically earns them a 1% management fee plus an incentive fee of 20% of annual profits.

Although the exact number of hedge funds is difficult to quantify due to a lack of centralized reporting requirements, it is clear that hedge funds have grown exponentially in the last ten years. Industry trade publications indicate that hedge funds have quadrupled in number (from approximately 2,100 in 1996 to approximately 8,800 in 2006), have over $1.3 trillion under management and account for 20% to 50% of the daily trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange.

Hedge funds offer many benefits, but because of the volume of assets under management, they draw special attention when they fail. Hedge funds can fail for a variety of reasons. A hedge fund with a small asset base can experience crippling cash flow problems following a period of poor returns on investment. Excessive leverage can precipitate sudden capital depletion when investing in volatile financial instruments or commodities. Of most importance to law enforcement and regulators, however, is when hedge funds fail due to fraud. Debate continues among civil regulatory agencies and in Congress as to what, if anything, should be done to regulate the industry to control potential fraud and abuse.

The current investment climate, which lacks regulatory scrutiny, may tempt unscrupulous hedge fund managers to commit fraud. Hedge funds themselves are not illegal; they are simply the vehicle that facilitates fraudulent activity by managers. The FBI has investigated a variety of frauds that involve hedge funds. In the Daedalus Capital Partners case, for example, a classic advanced fee scheme was perpetrated by the hedge fund manager; investors received false financial statements claiming large profits, when in fact the money was being siphoned off and used to finance the manager's lavish lifestyle. In the Global Time Capital Growth Fund case, on the other hand, the hedge fund manager was convicted of trading on material non-public information regarding an impending bank merger--a classic example of insider trading. Finally, in the Bayou Management LLC case, the hedge fund principals created a legitimate hedge fund, suffered losses in trading and later issued false financials to their investors to hide those trading loses.