From: Autoplectic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
<http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-petruno15may15,0,3804524.column>
The Risk in Hiding Behind a Hedge Tom Petruno Market Beat May 15, 2005
In the TV reality show "The Biggest Loser," overweight contestants get serious about trimming down and getting healthy. The fun for viewers is in trying to pick the ultimate loser/winner.
Wall Street lately has been focused on its own version of "The Biggest Loser." This game entails trying to guess which hedge fund has made enough bad trading bets to wipe itself out and cause a domino effect � perhaps toppling a major bank or brokerage.
May 15, 2005
Investors Trusted Student; Now U.S. Is Charging Him
By ALAN FEUER
Hakan Yalincak arrived in Greenwich, Conn., last year with a tantalizing pitch: easy profits in a hedge fund. His investors were members of the Connecticut moneyed classes: movie producers, investment bankers and the like. They opened their homes to him; their wallets, too.
But there were false notes in his siren song, those who knew him say. The tails of his shirt were often untucked. He went around in shaggy hair. The computers in his office were not plugged in. He carried the secrets to his supposed family fortune in an ordinary plastic bag.
After he was indicted on May 6, charged in New Haven federal court with trying to pass $43 million in bad checks, Mr. Yalincak broke down in tears before a judge. He said that in another few days he was supposed to celebrate his graduation from New York University - but even that turned out to be a lie, prosecutors said.
Now, Mr. Yalincak, 21, whose first name is sometimes spelled Hagan, is locked in a Connecticut jail cell as the authorities pursue a bank fraud case against him and baffled investors try to get their money back.
"These were legitimate bankers that execute loans for hundreds of millions of dollars," said Paul Ardaji, a movie producer and restaurateur who rented office space to Mr. Yalincak and introduced him to a host of investors. "For a 21-year-old to be pulling this off - it's mind boggling." ...
Mr. Ardaji ... said he had been about to give Mr. Yalincak a half-million dollars to invest before his wife told him, "come to your senses." He is still confused about how a shaggy-headed 21-year-old could have earned the trust of the high-altitude Greenwich investment world.
"There were times where he looked pathetic, disheveled and unfocused," he said. "He had a big fat plastic shopping bag with all his documents in it. Looking back, you just shake your head."
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/nyregion/15fraud.html>
BTW, anyone who has never read William Gaddis's JR should add it to his/her summertime reading <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0140187073/ref=dp_nav_0/103-4749854-0947844?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155&s=books>
Carl
