The SEC is now requiring fund managers to report more information by revising Form ADV disclosures. In this article, Mr. Scharfman explains that it is still important to perform operational due diligence regardless of changes made to ADV disclosures and the yellow flags to look for when doing so. The piece also encourages investors to be aware of the fact that just because the SEC might require more information from funds, does not mean that there is as much quality in the documents as there is quantity.

To read the full Institutional Investor article, please click here.

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There has been new developments regarding the ongoing case of Bernard Madoff. While Madoff is serving a 150 year sentence in prison, his daughter-in-laws will now be paying the price for him and his son’s infamous Ponzi scheme.

Just last week, new claims were filed against the Madoff family in an Irving Picard $255 million complaint. The case has been revised to include both Deborah Madoff and Stephanie Mack to the “$54.5 million in claims for unjust enrichment,” The Washington Post reported. The wives are also being sued for $3 million that was given to them.

Although it has been said that a judge might end up barring these claims, Picard could still sue for unjust enrichment and constructive trust, said US Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland in Manhattan. It is, however, too late to charge the Madoff son’s wives with all of the other past charges brought up on the family.

Picard is still trying to retrieve investor money lost during Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

Mark Madoff, the son of Bernie Madoff, committed suicide in December 2010.

Stephanie Mack, Mark Madoff’s wife, speaks out about her husband’s suicide after Madoff Ponzi Scheme

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The fees and assets, as well as the outside members affiliated with the fund, would have been looked at more carefully during an operational due diligence review.

It seems that because Cannon’s pay rested on the performance of Matador, Cannon felt the need to inflate Global’s share price when it wasn’t doing as well as he’d hoped. Cannon also went as far as to put a false share price on Matador’s monthly brokerage statements.

It is unclear just how long Cannon was getting away with these discrepancies in fund data and trading, but perhaps a deeper look into the fund would have raised yellow flags for investors seeking transparency among the funds they were choosing to invest in.

Cannon’s lawyer is refuting the allegations brought up against his client and says that Russell Cannon did not do anything wrong and that they disagree with charges.

“The SEC asks that Cannon be ordered to halt the allegedly fraudulent activities, pay a fine and disgorge profits.”

Investors cannot solely rely on the SEC to detect fraud and other issues within hedge funds. This is why it is important for the investor to take it upon themselves to work with an operational due diligence consultant that will look use their expertise to focus in on the small details that may sometimes slip between the cracks, causing more serious problems in the long run.

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Mr. Scharfman is quoted in the piece explaining how Japan’s regulatory structure is a bit behind the United States and Europe.

“The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) hasn’t accused AIJ of any wrongdoing, but that will change if it’s proven that AIJ hid funds overseas in the Cayman Islands. And it should be noted that Japan’s regulatory structure is only now catching up to those of the US and Europe.”

Mr. Scharfman also points out:

“Japanese investors, culturally, have been less inclined to put the screws to fund managers,” he says. “In other regions, post-Madoff, investors have realized that they have to look past any cultural hang-ups or not wanting to embarrass somebody or not be forward and ask certain questions. Japan has been behind the curve a little bit and they’re only now catching up.”

Furthermore, this article raises other due diligence issues pertaining to technology. Now, more than ever, investors are looking for specific documents from fund managers as a means to diving deep on the due diligence process. Mr. Scharfman was also quoted saying, “People are struggling with what to do with all the documents they receive when conducting due diligence and then how they analyze those documents. The solution will come down to how to organize and mine data that is generated in the due diligence process.”

To read the entire article, click here (subscription required).

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In recent months, there have been a variety of new challenges for hedge funds. Between the new regulatory requirements such as SEC registration, further news of hedge fund frauds, and continued revelations of insider trading scandals in the media spotlight, it seems that there is no better time to learn about upcoming operational due diligence trends in the market for 2012.

On Thursday March 15, from 2:00-3:00pm EST, Corgentum Consulting will launch their inaugural webinar: Operational Due Diligence Survival Kit for 2012. This webinar will feature essential skills for assessing and uncovering operational risk within hedge funds and other alternatives. Investors are urged to attend this crucial discussion, which will cover everything from new industry statistics to the five key steps to constructing an operational due diligence plan.

In only an hour, investors will gain a stronger knowledge base of what operational due diligence is and why it is such an important part of their asset strategy. To sign up, please visit: http://www.corgentum.com/contact/webinar1.html

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A jury recently handed down a sentence which found that the Galleon Group’s founder Raj Rajaratnam was convicted of insider trading. Bloomberg is reporting that jury never argued during 12 days of secret deliberations that he was innocent.  Instead the focus was on what sentence to give Rajaratnam. Here is a post about the Galleon verdict entitled, Galleon’s Fait Accompli : Investor’s Move the Dial Towards a Conservative Approach to Hedge Fund Research, on the Corgentum Consulting blog and some videos from the trail and verdict:

http://youtu.be/YKbqdE_BA5w

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Details are still emerging regarding JPMorgan Chase’s alleged knowledge of the Madoff fraud. Here is a video about the investigation:

It is  being reported that the latest avenue being pursued by Madoff trustee Irving Picard is that one of the many operational due diligence red flags which should have alerted JP Morgan Chase & Co. to the Madoff Ponzi scheme was the number and volume of suspicious transactions by one of Madoff’s so-called “surrogate father” a man named Norman F. Levy. Mr. Levy, who is now deceased, was a real estate broker who made transfers from1998 to 2001 to the tune of more than $83 billion in and out of his account with Madoff. Levy’s  supermodel girlfriend, supermodel Carmen Dell’Orefice, would lose her life savings with Madoff. Here is a video showing Ms. Dell’Orefice modeling:

Levy’s estate is being pursued by the IRS as a result of revelations from the Madoff fraud.

The other so-called “surrogate father” to Madoff was, according to Vanity Fair, philanthropist Carl J. Shapiro. Shaprio (who’s wife is also named Ruth) lives in both Boston and Palm Beach and was the founder of Kay Windsor, Inc. a maker of women’s apparel.

Despite heavy Madoff losses for Shapiro personally, and his charities, Shapiro agreed to return $625 million to Irving Picard which included $38 million which was paid by Shapiro’s son in-law (Robert M. Jaffe).

In other Madoff news, it is being reported that Ruth Madoff was turned away from a memorial service for her son Mark by Mark’s widow. Apparently there are still hard feelings from when Ruth chose to visit Bernie in jail after he was reportedly beaten in prison.

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The recent comments of Jason Scharfman, Corgentum Consulting Managing Partner regarding the enhanced focus being placed by investors on hedge fund operational risk were outlined in Risk.net’s Operational Risk & Regulation Journal in an article entitled, Operational infrastructure at hedge funds comes under closer scrutiny .

Topics outlined by Mr. Scharfman in the article include:

• Continued failures of many hedge fund with in regards to documenting operational policies
• Benefits of hedge funds emphasizing their operational strengths and openly discussing operational weaknesses
• The false artifical operational floor of Dodd-Frank legislation
• Inherent benefits of investors develop dialogues concerning operational risks with their hedge fund managers

The full article can be read on the Risk.net’s Operational Risk & Regulation website (subscription required).

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A recent Opalesque article outlined the recet the comments of Jason Scharfman, Corgentum Consulting Managing Partner on the subject of trends in hedge fund operational risk.

In the article, which is entitled 20% of marketing presentation should be dedicated to investor education , Mr. Scharfman outlines in part that, “[managers] need to have a robust operational policy (from pricing sources, to valuations, to how the administrator receives that information, to cash management policies).”

The full article can be read on the Opalesque website (subscription required).

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Corgentum Consulting has released a new paper entitled, Hedge Fund Operational Due Diligence Education Series – Understanding Material Nonpublic Information in the United States.

With the recent raids of the offices of three hedge fund managers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the on-going prosecution of Raj Rajaratnam’s Galleon Group, cracking down on allegedly illegal insider trading is clearly on the forefront of the U.S. government’s financial regulatory agenda. Here is a video from CNBC concerning the recent FBI raids:

Hedge Fund Operational Due Diligence Education Series – Understanding Material Nonpublic Information in the United States provides an introduction to the ways in which hedge fund’s may interact, either directly or indirectly, with material nonpublic information. Areas addressed in this paper include a hedge fund’s use of expert networks as well as other third-party firms which provide information to hedge funds. Also discussed in this paper are several questions investors should address during the operational due diligence process in order to diagnose both a fund’s potential exposures to the risks associated with material nonpublic information as well as what preventative measures, if any, a hedge fund may have taken to insulate themselves for the liability associated with receiving or trading on such information.

The paper can be found in the Research section of the corgentum.com website, or via direct link here.

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