Castle Hall on Madoff

*Castle Hall has never conducted due dilligence on the Madoff Organization

In a recent post on their company's website, Castle Hall lines out what makes the Madoff case so different from other hedge funds with regard to fraud. Madoff was the only one who produced documents that had clear numbers of the client's earnings; making it very easy to lie to his investors. This was unlike any other hedge fund, thankfully.

But why would anyone follow this man? Why did no one, until recently, ring the bell on his inepitude?

For the rest of the Castle Hall post, please click here.

Sandra Manzke on CNBC

Sandra Manzke, MAXAM Capital chairman/CEO and of the Hedge Fund Investor Forum was recently featured on CNBC to discuss restricting redemptions for hedge fund managers.


To view the video, please click here:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=956294201


Do you agree or disagree with Sandra's take on restricting redemptions?

Withdrawals bedevil hedge funds, and not just the poor performers

From IHT.com

For Bernard Madoff, the embattled hedge fund manager, the world came to an end when his funds were unable to meet $7 billion in withdrawals at a time when he was supposedly managing $17 billion.

It may seem a lot for people not in the know about hedge funds; however, this amout of money is typical for hedge fund organizations. Individuals looking to get out their money shoudl be able to do so unless there is a gate set up by the managing organization. Customers now have taken out upwards of %35 percent of funds, even funds performing all right in this economy.

So what do you think? Sould people be able to take their money out at anytime or should more restrictive gates be put into place? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

For the rest of this article, please click here.

Financial groups' problem assets hit $610 bln

From StockMarketFunding.com

There has been a sharp increase by over $600 billion dollars of hard to value asses during the third quarter of 2009. This isn't great news as it raises concerns over dangerous balance sheet practices that may be abounding throughout the funds market. People are worried about the cash securities so their going for the sweetest deal--


Level-three assets have risen all year for most banks as they have found it virtually impossible to sell mortgage-backed securities and collateralised debt obligations. "A lot of banks are saying: ‘I am going to move securities to level-three assets because I have more control over, and confidence in, the model used for their valuations'," said Gregg Berman, head of the risk management unit at Risk Metrics...

To visit this article, please click here.

Bloomberg: Madoff ‘Big Lie’ Hits Fairfield Sentry, Kingate Funds

From Bloomberg.com:

The biggest hit on the "Ponzi" Madoff scheme is Fairfield Greenwich Group who invested over $7 billion dollars into the Madoff firm. This is the first report of enormous losses by the inept Madoff firm. Surely more big names are to come.


The biggest loser may be Walter Noel’s Fairfield Greenwich Group, whose $7.3 billion Fairfield Sentry Ltd. invested with Madoff’s eponymous firm, three people familiar with the matter said. Another was Kingate Management Ltd., whose $2.8 billion Kingate Global Fund Ltd. invested with Madoff, they said.

For more information, please click here.