SEC Goes After Hedge Fund Managers

Date: Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Author: Courthouse News Service

Hedge fund operates took more than $2.5 million in kickbacks while putting clients into grossly overstated Wealth Management LLC accounts, the SEC claims in Federal Court. It sued the hedge fund, its managers James Putman and Simone Fevola, and several relief defendants.
     Wealth Management claims to have 447 clients for whom it manages $131 million, $102 million of it in Wealth Management funds, the SEC says.
     It claims that Putman and Fevola "engaged in a kickback scheme from which each accepted at least $1.24 million in undisclosed payments derived from certain investments made by the WM Funds".
     Wealth Management and Fevola, 49, are based in Appleton, Wisc., Putman, 57, in Menasha, the SEC says.
     Here are the defendants: Wealth Management LLC; James Putman; Simone Fevola; WML Gryphon Fund LLC (Relief Defendant); WML Watch Stone Partners LP, a Delaware partnership (Relief Defendant); WML Pantera Partners LP, a Delaware partnership (Relief Defendant); WML Palisade Partners LP, a Delaware partnership (Relief Defendant); WML L3 LLC, a Delaware company (Relief Defendant); and WML Quetzal Partners LP, a Delaware partnership (Relief Defendant).