SFO swoop to arrest to hedge fund managers
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) today launched a dawn raid on British-based Weavering Capital which saw its flagship Macro Fixed Income fund collapse earlier this year. It appears as though PricewaterhouseCoopers discovered a number of irregularities regarding various interest-rate swaps and called the SFO called in to investigate. So far we have yet to hear any details of the alleged offences although the arrest of two high-profile hedge fund managers speaks for itself.
It is becoming ever more apparent that the Serious Fraud Office is taking a much firmer approach regarding alleged financial irregularities as UK regulators struggle to keep control of the financial sector. Public confidence has been waning for sometime after the debacle of the UK banking sector collapse and a number of high-profile alleged insider dealing investigations. Whether the arrests today will eventually prompt the laying of criminal charges remains to be seen but many fund managers will be monitoring the situation with great interest.
While hedge funds have become very popular over the last few years many investors still do not understand exactly how they work and the potentially complicated financial instruments which can involved. Rather bizarrely, this very same claim has often been targeted at UK regulators themselves!
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