Rajaratnam Team Attacks, MLB Wants Hedge Funds at Bay, Halcyon Looks To London

Halcyon Adds London-Based Fundraiser (FinAlternatives)

New York hedge fund Halcyon Asset Management is looking abroad to add to its $10 billion in assets under management.
The firm has added Rollo Wigan as part of a major expansion of its London office. Wigan will focus on fundraising as the firm seeks to recruit investors in Europe, the Middle East and Australia, the Financial Times reports.
Following Wigan’s hiring, Halcyon plans to add new research analysts in the British capital.

Raj Rajaratnam thinking

Baseball Bars Banks From Selling Team Debt to Hedge Funds (FinAlternatives)

Major League Baseball has moved to keep hedge funds’ hands off of team debt in the wake of last year’s sale of the Texas Rangers.
The new restrictions—instituted last year for all new loans to baseball’s 30 teams—are in force for $375 million in loans taken by the New York Mets last year, and they bar the banks that hold such loans from reselling the debt to hedge funds without league approval. The restrictions will make it all but impossible for hedge funds to play a similar role to the one they played with the Rangers, complicating and for a time imperiling the team’s sale by private equity honcho Tom Hicks, whose sports team holding company defaulted on more than $500 million in debt in 2009.
The restrictions put into place for the Mets loans came in the wake of the Rangers’ bankruptcy filing. But while they’ll keep hedge funds from meddling, the rules could make it even harder for the Mets’ owners, facing a $1 billion lawsuit from the trustee in the Bernard Madoff case, from selling a stake in the team.

CME Fines Hedge Fund for Violating Limits (WSJ)

The operator of the New York Mercantile Exchange, home of the U.S. gas futures benchmark, said Tuesday that it fined the Houston energy fund $50,000 plus $17,287 in profits gained when the fund’s traders exceeded limits on the size of their bets.
Goldfinch declined to comment. A CME spokesman said the exchange operator doesn’t comment on disciplinary actions.

Defense in Galleon Trial Bids to Discredit U.S.’s Star Witness (WSJ)

A lawyer for Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam attempted to discredit the government’s star witness in an insider-trading trial, accusing him of telling “a monstrous lie” to hide payments from the hedge-fund trader and others.
The witness, former McKinsey & Co. partner Anil Kumar, has testified about giving Mr. Rajaratnam inside information regarding his consulting clients in exchange for more than $2 million in offshore payments.