Article: Comeback quashed for faith-driven investor Bill Hwang

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Comeback quashed for faith-driven investor Bill Hwang

Lawrence Delevingne, 30 March 2021

(Reuters) – Bill Hwang’s comeback was nearly complete. Once punished by U.S. and Asian regulators for stock trading rule violations at his former hedge fund, the New York investor rebuilt his fortune to about $10 billion. Major Wall Street banks once again competed for his business. And his charitable foundation’s coffers swelled by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Hwang was making big money again, inspired by a renewed Christian faith.

“When we create good companies through the capitalism that God has allowed, it enhances people’s lives….God delights in those things,” Hwang said in a video posted online in 2019 here. Continue reading “Article: Comeback quashed for faith-driven investor Bill Hwang”

Article: One of World’s Greatest Hidden Fortunes Is Wiped Out in Days

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One of World’s Greatest Hidden Fortunes Is Wiped Out in Days

Katherine Burton and Tom Maloney,  30 March 2021

From his perch high above Midtown Manhattan, just across from Carnegie Hall, Bill Hwang was quietly building one of the world’s greatest fortunes.

Even on Wall Street, few ever noticed him — until suddenly, everyone did.

Hwang and his private investment firm, Archegos Capital Management, are now at the center of one of the biggest margin calls of all time — a multibillion-dollar fiasco involving secretive market bets that were dangerously leveraged and unwound in a blink. Continue reading “Article: One of World’s Greatest Hidden Fortunes Is Wiped Out in Days”

Article: Covéa-SCOR conflict takes new twist

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Covéa-SCOR conflict takes new twist

Terry Gangcuangco, 25 March 2021

The soured relationship between Covéa Group and SCOR is not looking any better with the passing of time, with another major development likely to widen the rift between the two.

In a release, French mutual insurance group Covéa said it has filed “on behalf of SCOR” a complaint against the latter’s chief executive for alleged market manipulation and corporate assets misuse. Filed with the Parquet National Financier, the complaint against Denis Kessler spans actions taken between September 2018 and January 2019 involving a share buyback and so-called advisory expenses.

Reacting to the move by its biggest shareholder, the global reinsurer stated: “SCOR wonders what led Covéa to file this complaint, more than two years after it became aware of the facts it pretends to report. Continue reading “Article: Covéa-SCOR conflict takes new twist”

Article: Newly Obtained Audit Report Details How Shady Clients from Around the World Moved Billions Through Estonia

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Newly Obtained Audit Report Details How Shady Clients from Around the World Moved Billions Through Estonia

Holger Roonemaa and Oliver Kund, KYC360News, 12 March 2021

On a warm Monday morning in June 2014, two auditors from Estonia’s financial regulator stepped into the Tallinn office of Danske Bank, armed with a single piece of graph paper handwritten with the names of 18 of its clients, and demanded to see their records.

At first glance, the customers on the list sounded boring. They were mostly obscure trading companies with generic names like Hilux Services and Polux Management. But the auditors — who had been tipped off by a police unit that tracks financial crime — didn’t have to dig too deep before things got very strange.

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Article: Overstock.com dukes it out with short sellers

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Overstock.com dukes it out with short sellers

The Associated Press, 12 June 2006

Most people buy stock hoping the price goes up, but hedge fund manager David Rocker was “shorting” shares of Utah-based Internet retailer Overstock.com Inc., betting the share price would decline.

Rocker’s fund was making a legal bet that Overstock shares in 2004 were overvalued and due for a correction. Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, however, sued, accusing New York-based Rocker Partners of collaborating on disparaging reports with the stock-research firm Gradient Analytics of Scottsdale, Ariz., while Rocker was shorting the shares. Continue reading “Article: Overstock.com dukes it out with short sellers”

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