SEC’s Madoff Investigation = Stunning Failure As has been widely reported, the Inspector General has released a 450 page report on the SEC’s stunning failure to uncover the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme.  Below I have republished some of the more interesting items from the summary portion of the report (emphasis [...]

Hedge Fund Due Diligence Firm Releases White Paper We’ve published a number of thoughtful pieces on this blog from Chris Addy, president and CEO of Castle Hall Alternatives (see, for example, article on Hedge Fund Auditors).  Today we are publishing a press release which announces a new white paper from [...]

This week alone the Commodities Futures Trading Commission issued 5 separate press releases regarding various frauds and ponzi schemes.   As we have noted many times before investors should make sure they conduct adequate due diligence into their managers.  It also goes without saying, but managers should not engage in fraudulent [...]

SEC and CFTC Act to Halt New Fraud Another fraud was unveiled today as the SEC and the CFTC worked in conjunction to halt a ponzi scheme which purportedly made great returns by trading in the off-exchange foreign currency (forex) markets.  The scammer was a member of the deaf community [...]

Definition of a Ponzi Scheme With all of the talk recently about the Madoff scandal and various other ponzi scheme’s affecting the hedge fund and investment management industry, we have decided to post a definition of a Ponzi scheme.  The definition below comes from the SEC and can be found [...]