Hedge fund Elliott accuses rival of espionage

Date: Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Author: Reuters.com

NEW YORK, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Hedge fund Elliott Management Corp sued Cedar Hill Capital Partners LLC on Tuesday, alleging its rival engaged in corporate espionage by misappropriating its proprietary software used for trading.

Elliott alleged that Cedar schemed with one of its employees and a consultant to "literally steal the software in order to use it for its own trading activities," according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

"Cedar Hill's illicit conduct is nothing short of an overt act of corporate espionage," it alleged.

Cedar Hill was not immediately available for comment.

Elliott, which manages more than $10 billion in investments, said it developed the software to help it analyze loans, bonds and related instruments for trading in collateralized debt obligations.

The software allows Elliott to analyze CDOs and their underlying loans better, giving it a competitive edge in the marketplace, it said.

It took Elliott's computer development team more than two years to develop the software and cost millions of dollars, it said.

Cedar Hill set in motion a scheme to misappropriate the software in October 2007, Elliott alleged.

Elliott sued Cedar Hill and certain affiliates for misappropriation of trade secrets, unfair competition and other claims.

It said it was seeking damages and to prevent Cedar Hill from "further wrongfully exploiting its confidential and proprietary information." (Reporting by Paritosh Bansal; Editing by Brian Moss)