Dem Mega-Donor Maxes Out to ‘Independent’ Kansas Senate Hopeful (FreeBeacon)
Greg Orman is still being coy about his partisan allegiances, but more high-dollar Democratic donors are lining up behind his independent U.S. Senate run in Kansas. The latest Democratic heavyweight to back his campaign is hedge fund billionaire Jim Simons, who gave the $2,600 maximum to Orman’s campaign this month, according to Federal Election Commission records. Simons has poured money into Democratic campaigns and outside spending groups during the 2014 cycle, including $2 million to Senate Majority PAC, the well-funded Super PAC looking to keep Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) in control of Congress’ upper chamber.
Eddie Lampert Gives Sears Another Cash Infusion (JewishBusinessNews)
An iconic brand that seems like it is on its last legs is going to get a cash infusion by its CEO Eddie Lampert to raise liquidity ahead of the holiday season, as reported by CFO. Lampert’s hedge fund ESL Investments has a 48% stake in Sears, and is going to pump $303 million into the company with a goal to raise $625 million through an offering of senior notes and warrants. Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:SHLD) management stated in a blog post, “This rights offering provides Sears Holdings with an additional long-term flexibility, and we expect it will provide confidence to our vendors and other constituents that we will continue to generate liquidity needed to support our business.”
Brevan Taps Fortress Vet Schaumann For Risk (Finalternatives)
Brevan Howard Asset Management has turned to a former Fortress Investment Group executive to lead its risk business. The New York Post reports that Hilmar Schaumann was named head of risk at Brevan on Oct. 1. Prior to his time at Fortress, which he joined in 2010, Schaumann—a Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE:DB) veteran—ran his own hedge fund, Deister Capital.
Boone Pickens Tells Oil Companies to Stop Drilling (WSJ)
T. Boone Pickens has seen plummeting oil prices before and says he knows what the problem is. Energy companies are pumping too much oil and none of them wants to be the first to stop, Mr. Pickens said Wednesday in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. The result—plunging crude prices that aren’t going to rebound until oil companies do what “a five-year old could’ve figured out” he said. Stop drilling. The legendary oilman said energy companies are optimists. “They keep thinking the price is going to go back up,” the 86-year-old said…
Hedge Fund Giants Join Up To Raise $6 Million For Charity (HedgeCo)
Hedge fund sponsored event, Robin Hood, yesterday concluded its 2nd annual Investors Conference, raising $6 million to support hundreds of the most effective job-training programs, schools, soup kitchens, shelters and other poverty-fighting programs throughout New York City. “All of us at Robin Hood are extremely grateful for the generosity shown by our sponsors, which is what enables us to contribute 100% of the money raised through Conference ticket sales to hundreds of the best programs throughout the five boroughs that work to help improve the lives of the 1.8 million New Yorkers living in poverty,” said David Saltzman, executive director of Robin Hood.
US rate hike unlikely in the next 6-9 months: Pro (CNBC)
US billionaire’s hedge fund dumps Sony stake (ChinaPost)
U.S. billionaire Daniel Loeb who last year tried to push Sony to spin off a key part of its business, has sold his shares in the struggling firm saying “more urgency will be necessary” to get it back on track. Loeb’s Third Point hedge fund failed to persuade Sony to hive off up to 20 percent of its successful U.S.-based entertainment division, which includes a Hollywood studio and music label, to make it more profitable. However, Sony rejected the proposal, which grabbed international headlines and was widely portrayed as a clash of corporate cultures, pitting a hard-charging foreign billionaire against one of the bedrocks of Japan’s staid corporate sector.
Soros and the CIA Now Banking on Neves to Defeat Rousseff (VoltaireNet)
After the corporate media and the CIA and George Soros manipulators tried to engineer Green Party-turned-Brazilian Socialist presidential candidate Marina Silva into the Brazilian presidency after the classic CIA textbook aerial assassination of Socialist Party presidential standard bearer Eduardo Campos, these same forces are at it again on behalf of Social Democratic Party candidate Aecio Neves. Although Neves was polling in second place to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff before the first-round presidential election on October, the death of Campos and his senior aides in a highly suspicious plane crash on August 13, forced Neves into third place in polls. Silva, a favorite of Soros and his international network of cash-flush non-governmental organizations, was propelled into second place.
Talk Radio Hedge-Fund Manager Fined (Finalternatives)
A conservative talk-radio host from Texas must pay $1.7 million in disgorgement and fines for allegedly defrauding investors in his hedge fund, the Securities and Exchange Commission has ruled. George Jarkesy was found to have lied to investors in his John Thomas Capital Management when he told them he was the hedge fund’s sole manager. In fact, he had abdicated most of his responsibilities to notorious boiler-room operator Anastasios Belesis—whose firm was called John Thomas Financial, the SEC said in its initial decision. Belesis allegedly browbeat and bullied Jarkesy into paying more in fees and investing in companies that Belesis’ firm had interest in.
Citadel Chief: Wife Has No Right To Pay For ‘Affluent’ Life With His Money (Finalternatives)
Citadel Investment Group founder Kenneth Griffin says his wife has plenty of money on her own and that he shouldn’t be forced to fund her “affluent lifestyle.” In the latest nasty turn in Griffin’s divorce from his wife, the hedge-fund billionaire says Anne Dias Griffin “cannot support her claim that she has a clearly ascertainable right to have Ken fund purchases of couture clothing, helicopter rides, private air travel and whatever lifestyle she chooses based on Ken’s ‘total financial resources,’” his lawyers argue in a Wednesday court filing. “Anne also suggests that she is entitled to use of Ken’s two private aircraft,” it continues but such is “certainly not a ‘right,’ and its deprivation does not constitute irreparable injury.”
Hedge Funds Confront the Future (InstitutionalInvestor)
When the California Public Employees’ Retirement System made its first-ever hedge fund investment, in 2002, institutional investors around the U.S. sat up and took notice. CalPERS, then and now the nation’s largest public pension plan and widely viewed as an investment trendsetter among its peers, was the first such fund of significant size to invest in what was a burgeoning corner of the alternative-investment industry. Other public plans followed: Hedge fund assets swelled from $626 billion in 2002 to, by some estimates, nearly $3 trillion today, with the bulk of that growth coming from institutional investors.
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