Regulation

If it isn’t enough that federal regulators are looking into whether the managers of two failed Bear Stearns hedge funds, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, misled investors into staying with the risky investments as they were tanking, they are now probing whether they inflated the funds’ returns and outlook to obtain loans from banks or prime custodians, BusinessWeek reports.

The Alternative Investment Management Association of the U.K. is about to launch a third set of codes for hedge funds-of-funds, on the heels of two other sets of best practices issued in the last 18 months.

On Wednesday morning, hedge fund fugitive Samuel Israel III surrendered himself to law enforcement officials in Southwick, Mass. Israel has been on the run since June 9, when he was set to report to prison in Ayres, Mass. His car was found that day on a Westchester County, N.Y., bridge with the words “suicide is painless” written on the hood.

After completing his service as chief information office on June 30, Corey Booth parted ways with the Securities and Exchange Commission in order to pursue a new career with Boston Consulting Group in New York.

This week, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission decided that effective Aug. 1, mutual fund advertisements will no longer need to be pre-approved.

NEW YORK - The freewheeling days for hedge funds may be numbered.

WASHINGTON - Volatile market conditions and the credit crisis have put the hard brakes on new hedge funds. The number of hedge funds launched in the first quarter was the lowest for a quarter since 2000, while fund liquidations increased from a year earlier.

"I cheated my investors because I was afraid to admit my failure. I did not want the world to think I was not good enough and I did not want my family to see me as a failure."

Cash-strapped banks are hoping the Federal Reserve will loosen restrictions keeping private-equity firms from giving them capital, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Gavin charged UBS AG's UBS Securities, LLC and UBS Financial Services with fraud and dishonest conduct regarding the firms’ retail sales of auction-rate securities.