Monday, August 30, 2010

Court Affirms Arb Award Against Madoff Feeder Fund

We have always been of the opinion that Madoff feeder funds have potential exposure to investor claims for not disclosing or monitoring the feeder funds investments with Madoff. That exposure is heightened in some instances, where the feeder fund simply turned over the funds to Madoff, took a piece of the management fees, and did little else.

A New York court has confirmed a AAA arbitration award against Ascot Partners in favor of an Ascot investor for failing to disclose Madoff's exclusive role in managing the investor's assets.

Professor Jill Gross, at the ADR Blog, has an analysis of the decision. The arbitration panel, which rendered a 23 page decision in the arbitration, was chaired by none other than David Robbins, a well known investor attorney.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

State of NJ Settles Securities Fraud Charges

Well, here is something I have never seen. The State of New Jersey has settled securities fraud charges brought against it by the SEC. But there is a reason why I have never seen it; it has never happened before. According to the NJ Star Ledger, the State was accused of securities fraud for failing to tell bond investors it was underfunding its pension funds. The charges were settled immediately, without fines or penalties. Nice outcome for a securities fraud case. More...

Monday, August 2, 2010

SEC Looking Into Insider Trading in BP Shares

Reuters is reporting that the SEC is investigatingwhether people may have illegally profited from trading on nonpublic information at BP Plc (BP.L) (BP.N) in the weeks and months following the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  More>>>