Feds Investigate Bear Stearns Fund Manager

Insider-trading probe targets $2M move ahead of fund collapse
By Jim O'Neill,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 19, 2007 12:00 PM CST
Feds Investigate Bear Stearns Fund Manager
The logo for Bear Stearns is shown at its corporate headquarters in New York, in this July 18, 2007 file photo. Bear Stearns Cos., the nation's fifth-largest investment bank, on Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007 said it will cut 4 percent of its staff in further fallout from the summer's mortgage turmoil. ...   (Associated Press)

The manager of hedge funds that lost $1.6 billion when they went bankrupt in July has left Bear Stearns, and federal investigators are looking into whether he withdrew his own money before the collapse. Ralph Cioffi moved $2 million in March—before the funds tanked in the subprime collapse—to another Bear offering, Bloomberg reports; the feds are investigating.

One of Cioffi's funds earned a 46.8% return from October 2003 to March 2007, Bloomberg reports. Bear Stearns has seen its stock price decline 43% this year as hedge funds linked to debts incurred in subprime mortgages went down the drain. Regulatory reviews launched by the US Attorney in Brooklyn and the Securities and Exchange Commission appear to have snagged Cioffi.  (More Bear Stearns stories.)

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