Bloomberg is reporting that last quarter investors withdrew $152 billion from hedge funds. While i have read about 10 different version of this number (anywhere from $100 to $300 billion) this is amazing considering that virtually every hedge funds has gated redemptions. One can only imagine how many times bigger this number would have been if hedge fund managers did the honorable thing and actually gave investors full access to their funds.
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The man who had lent Bill Clinton his chopper, was found dead on Monday in an apparent suicide. Patrick Rocca, 41, died from a single gunshot to his head in his home in Holmeleigh, an exclusive residential enclave on the edge of Dublin's Castleknock Golf and Country Club. Apparently Rocca lost millions when Irish banks, specifically Anglo Irish, were nationalized and their equity value was destroyed. Patrick had $20 million in personal loans tied to Anglo Irish. He leaves behind a wife and three children...
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These headlines just hit. Let me paraphrase: "We are f@*&#d. Send guns, ammo and lawyers." Oh, and GM needs to take down breakeven level for future. Hey Bob Lutz, good work reading our suggestions. Curious just how many times the new "conservative" plan will have to be reworked.
S&P, which lately seems to be paying its credit "analysts" at a rate of $1/word and has imposed a minimum quota of 10 downgrades a week, whacked LBO titan Freescale late on Friday with a downgrade of its corporate rating from B+ to B-, its secured loans from BB to B- and bonds from B- to CCC. In a sleuthing masterpiece report that would make Inspector Clouseau proud, S&P said it "expects Freescale's near- to intermediate-term operating prospects and related credit measures will be adversely impacted by the current economic environment" and that its "concentration in the automotive sector will result in sharply lower revenue in 2009 and possibly in 2010 and that lower revenue will hurt gross profit margins".
Florida, Indiana, Georgia, even Idaho, ponzis seem to pop up in the strangest of places. Next up: Philadelphia, where Joseph Forte, 53, was charged by U.S. prosecutors with mail fraud allegations that he ran a $50 million Ponzi that bilked charity, church and private school investors. Forte apparently ripped off 80 investors between February 1995 and 2008. Forte "made" its money trading S&P 500 stock index futures. Oh come on, no hedge fund in modern history has made a penny trading that stuff. But apparently Forte told the prosecutors that he "falsely reported investment returns of up to 38% when in fact he regularly lost money in his futurea trading." Forte had told investors his fund had a value of more than $154 million when the trading account was worth less than $146,814 but at least he paid himself million of dollars in salaries and fees.
Debtwire's secret spies reiterate the rumor we initially picked up almost two weeks ago.
Financials all over the world received the Friend-O treatment today....repeatedly. XLF financial index hits all time low.
