Fake Hedge Fund Manager Sentenced, Caxton Betting On Commodities

Fake Hedge-Fund Operators Sentenced to 87 Months in Prison for Fraud (Bloomberg)
Two men who in December admitted to defrauding investors of more than $7 million though bogus hedge funds were each sentenced to 87 months in prison, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.
Igor Levin, 41, of Brooklyn, New York, and Yevgeny Shvartsshteyn, 40, of Belle Harbor, New York, each pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. The two said they operated A.R. Capital, a general partner of A.R. Capital Global Fund LP, which they told investors was a hedge fund that invested primarily in equity of international real estate companies, and in oil, gas and other commodities, according to a statement from Bharara’s office.

Caxton’s Law Leads Macro Funds Riding Rebound as Markets Brush Off Shocks (Bloomberg)
At Caxton Associates LLC, an $11 billion hedge fund, Chief Investment Officer Andrew Law is betting on rising prices for commodities including oil. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP’s Gavyn Davies likes Japanese stocks.
Managers of macro hedge funds such as Law and Davies wager on broad economic trends, and they say 2011 is shaping up to be a promising year as big themes take hold, notably a pickup in global growth and rising interest rates outside of the U.S. Market volatility that stymied macro funds over the past two years is subsiding, as are concerns caused by Japan’s 9.0 magnitude earthquake and unrest in the Middle East.

Spain’s Banco Asks for State Funds (WSJ)
Spanish savings bank Banco Base said Monday that it will ask for €1.45 billion ($2.04 billion) in state funds to meet new local capital requirements, a sign that some troubled cajas are struggling to attract much-needed private capital. Banco Base, Spain’s third-largest savings bank by assets, abandoned the idea of holding an initial public offering and will ask Spain’s Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring, or FROB, for the funds. FROB, in turn, will take a stake in Banco Base, the size of which is yet to be determined.