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SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - February 14th, 2014

(Feb 2014)

SEC Charges James Y. Lee for Defrauding His Advisory Clients
February 14, 2014, (Litigation Release No. 22927)
According to the complaint, James Y. Lee defrauded his advisory clients in several ways including "charg[ing] some clients fees...based on false performance and conceal[ing] from them that they had actually incurred realized losses," failing to disclose information about his background including "a criminal conviction for embezzlement and an SEC cease-and-desist order for his role in...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - February 7th, 2014

(Feb 2014)

Court of Appeals Denies Stay of Order Compelling Investigative Testimony; Affirms District Court's Exercise of Discretion
February 6, 2014, (Litigation Release No. 22920)
This week the court issued a "summary order denying Edward Daspin's motion for a stay" on a December 2013 order. This means that Daspin is required "to appear for investigative testimony in compliance with an SEC investigative subpoena" and was denied a "request that the SEC be required to pay for Daspin's physician to attend...

Willow Fund's Hedging, Investing and Speculating in Distressed Debt With Credit Default Swaps

(Jan 2014)

In a recent post we demonstrated how the Willow Fund's purchase of credit default swaps evolved from hedging a portion of its distressed debt to swamping the portfolio with enormous short positions in distressed debt. In this post, we explain why the Willow Fund's use of credit default swaps was inconsistent with its repeated disclosures that:
... The Fund may use a variety of special investment techniques to hedge a portion of its investment portfolio against various risks or other factors...

Credit Default Swaps on Steroids: UBS's Willow Fund

(Jan 2014)

We previously published a working paper on how investors in Oppenheimer's Champion Income Fund lost 80% in 2008 when peer group funds lost about 25%. Our Champion Income Fund paper is available on our website. Oppenheimer had increased Champion Income Fund's exposure to CMBS through credit default swaps and total return swaps in 2007 and 2008. Figure 1 reproduces a figure from our 2010 paper which demonstrates that the leverage Oppenheimer took on through the swaps fully explained the...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - January 10th, 2014

(Jan 2014)

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Diamond Foods, Inc.
January 9, 2014, (Litigation Release No. 22902)
According to the complaint, Diamond Foods, Inc. manipulated walnut costs to report "higher net income and inflated earnings to exceed analysts' estimates for fiscal quarters in 2010 and 2011." According to the complaint against Diamond's former CFO, Steven Neil, Neil "directed the effort to fraudulently underreport money paid to walnut growers." Diamond's former CEO, Michael Mendes, has...

Behringer Harvard / TIER REIT Illustrates How Non-Traded REIT Sponsors and Brokers Have Siphoned $10 Billion to $20 Billion (and Counting) From Investors

(Jan 2014)

Sponsors have issued, and brokers had sold, over $85 billion of non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs) by the end of 2012. These investments are illiquid, high-commissioned, poorly diversified real estate investments. Despite their glaring defects another $20 billion of non-traded REITs were sold to investors in 2013.

Sponsors and brokers have siphoned off at least $20 billion from investors through their sales of non-traded REITs up through 2012. We illustrate the calculation of...

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