SEC Gives Perry Hedge Fund Wells Notice

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to take action against Perry Capital, a hedge fund company, for allegedly violating disclosure rules last year when trying to influence a merger battle, according to Comtex News Network.

A former Goldman Sachs partner, Richard C. Perry received a Wells notice from the SEC, and gave the firm an opportunity to convince the watchdog not to act.

Perry bought stakes in Mylan Laboratories and King Pharmaceuticals and then used an investment scheme that guarantees not losing any money on the Mylan shares. With this, he achieved the right to vote in favor of the merger. The deal then collapsed later on in 2004.

"We are in interesting territory now that hedge funds are moving into the mergers-and-acquisitions world," says Jennifer Spiegel, counsel with Debevoise & Plimpton, who advises hedge fund and private equity clients and is uninvolved in the Perry matter.

"Now that they are playing more of a role in the investment world, they are subject to the same rules as everybody else. Just because they are fast-moving investment vehicles, hedge funds shouldn't play by different rules."

Last year, the SEC began to investigate Perry's Mylan trading, people familiar with the investigation told The Wall Street Journal.

Perry has been accused of breaking the antifraud provisions of securities laws. The SEC rule requires that large investors disclose significant financial information about their holdings.

 "We have been given the opportunity [to give] our views as to why the proposed enforcement action should not be taken," Perry said in its letter to investors. The firm said it intends to outline its strong defenses to the proposed action.

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.

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