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17 Dec 2009

100 Women in Hedge Funds partners with Prince William in support of Youth Homeless Charity Centrepoint

100 Women in Hedge Funds, announced during Prince William’s visit to a Centrepoint hostel that, as part of the Prince’s patronage of 100 Women in Hedge Funds, it has chosen to partner with Centrepoint as well.

Centrepoint is the UK’s leading national youth homeless charity, to build on its existing mentoring programme. This announcement follows the news in October that Prince William, who in 2005, chose Centrepoint to be the first charity of which he would become patron, will be patron of 100 Women in Hedge Funds’ philanthropic initiatives.
100 Women in Hedge Funds has a track record of supporting charities in the fields of family health, mentoring and education. From January 2010, 100 Women in Hedge Funds will focus its philanthropic endeavours consecutively, for a year each, on three of Prince William’s Patronages: Centrepoint in 2010; the Child Bereavement Charity in 2011; and Skill Force in 2012.

Seyi Obakin, Chief Executive, Centrepoint said: “At Centrepoint, we are committed to giving homeless young people a future. We are delighted that, with Prince William’s patronage, 100 Women in Hedge Funds will be supporting Centrepoint throughout 2010. This support will make an invaluable contribution to lives of the 800 homeless young people we support each day.”

Commenting on the announcement, Anne Popkin, Chair of 100 Women in Hedge Funds, said: “We are thrilled as an organisation to partner with Centrepoint as they continue to meet their mission beyond their 40th anniversary, and are pleased to be working in partnership with Prince William to do so. All of our efforts and programs are aimed at supporting our three pillars of education, professional peer leverage, and philanthropy; and this partnership allows us to leverage our collective abilities and expertise in order to give back to the community.”

Funds raised by 100 Women in Hedge Funds in 2010 will be used to fund a mentoring programme aimed at enhancing the efforts already made by Centrepoint to impact the lives of young people by developing their employability skills, building their sense of self worth and self-esteem and setting goals for the future.

“In addition to Prince William’s patronage, we are pleased to announce that Financial Risk Management and its chairman Blaine Tomlinson have signed on to be the first Patronage Sponsor where they will support the charity of the year selected by 100 Women in Hedge Funds over the next three years,” added Popkin.

100 Women in Hedge Funds is planning a number of events in London during the year that will culminate in the 100 Women in Hedge Funds London Gala on September 30, 2010 at The Honorable Society of the Middle Temple.
Firms and individuals interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities or for further details on 100 Women in Hedge Fund’s Gala event for 2010, email:
Londongala@100womeninhedgefunds.org.

Khan's Plea Accepted At Hedge Fund Billionaire Raj Rajaratnam’s Trial

HedgeCo News Archives - Hedge fund consultant Roomy Khan made her first public appearance a Manhattan court yesterday, according to Bloomberg.

In October of this year, Khan pleaded guilty to a criminal information charging her with conspiracy to commit securities fraud and obstruction of justice, she entered her plea three days after hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam’s arrest.

Khan lived in California, where she traded securities on her own behalf, and also served as a paid consultant to a hedge fund located in New York. Khan admitted to compensating certain of her sources of inside information by giving them other inside information, cash and/or by executing trades in their personal brokerage accounts.

Khan also admitted in her plea to deleting an incriminating e-mail that she had received from a co-conspirator and attempted to deter other co-conspirators from sending incriminating e-mails or instant messages in light of the then-pending SEC investigation. Khan profited approximately $1.6 million as a result of her insider trading.

Bloomberg reported that U.S. District Judge Richard Berman yesterday formally accepted her plea after asking her several questions, including one about her cooperation agreement with prosecutors. “I just want to make sure you understand you have that obligation?” Berman asked.

Khan answered with "Yes, Sir" or "I understand" to the judge's questions.

Khan is one of six traders or lawyers who have pleaded guilty and are cooperating.

Manager Gets 24 Years In Hedge Fund Fraud Case

HedgeCo News Archives - Hedge fund manager Won Sok Lee, was sentenced this week by Judge Kenneth Ryskamp on wire fraud charges for his participation in a massive hedge fund fraud scheme, according to the Miami FBI.

Lee was sentenced to 298 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. In addition, he was ordered to pay over $78 million in restitution.

In December 2006, Won Sok Lee, Jung Kim, and Yung Bae Kim were indicted on charges that they orchestrated a massive investment fraud in the operation of various hedge funds under the umbrella of the KL Group, LLC, initially in California and later in Palm Beach County.

According to the Indictment, documents filed with the court, and statements made during the plea hearings, the defendants used quarterly mailings and website postings to misrepresent to investors that the KL Financial Group was a hugely successful family of hedge funds. In fact, however, the KL funds lost millions of dollars, and, in Ponzi scheme fashion, used new investors’ monies to make payments owed to previous investors. From 2000 through 2005, KL received approximately $194 million in investor funds.

Also charged in the Indictment were three hedge fund advisor companies that were owned and controlled by the individual defendants: KL Group, LLC, KL Triangulum Management, LLC, and Shoreland Trading, LLC. The companies pled guilty in July 2007 to participating in the investment fraud conspiracy.

Defendant Won Lee remained a fugitive from December 2006 until early 2009. In 2009, federal authorities located Won Lee in South Korea. He was extradited to South Florida in April 2009 to face the federal charges pending against him. Won Lee admitted lying to investors to induce them to invest in the hedge funds and to keep their monies invested or to reinvest in different hedge funds.

The misrepresentations included false statements about the soundness and performance of particular funds. Victims were told that the funds were profitable, when in fact, none were. Lee also admitted his complicity in creating counterfeit clearing firm statements that were used to perpetrate and conceal the scheme.

In addition, Lee admitted lying to a clearing house about the origin of monies used to buy and sell stocks cleared through Penson, a Texas-based clearing firm. Lee also admitted to creating fictitious stock trading sheets, which were used to show a one-day profit of $22 million in a stock known as RIMM, the company that manufactures the popular “Blackberry” device. The RIMM trade, however, never took place, and the fictitious stock trading sheets were used to fool investors concerning the profitable trades being conducted by the KL hedge funds.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen Carlton and Edward Nucci.