SEC CHARGES HEDGE FUND ADVISER WITH INTERNAL CONTROLS FAILURE

FROM:  U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a London-based hedge fund adviser and its former U.S.-based holding company with internal controls failures that led to the overvaluation of a fund’s assets and inflated fee revenue for the firms.

GLG Partners L.P. and its former holding company GLG Partners Inc. agreed to pay nearly $9 million to settle the SEC’s charges.

“Investors depend upon fund advisers to have proper controls in place to ensure that valuations and fees are not inflated,” said Antonia Chion, an associate director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.  “GLG’s pricing committee did not have the information and time it needed to properly value assets.”

According to the SEC’s order instituting settled administrative proceedings, the GLG firms managed the GLG Emerging Markets Special Assets 1 Fund.  From November 2008 to November 2010, GLG’s internal control failures caused the overvaluation of the fund’s 25 percent private equity stake in an emerging market coal mining company.  The overvaluation resulted in inflated fees to the GLG firms and the overstatement of assets under management in the holding company’s filings with the SEC.

According to the SEC’s order, GLG’s asset valuation policies required the valuation of the coal company’s position to be determined monthly by an independent pricing committee.  On a number of occasions, GLG employees received information calling into question the $425 million valuation for the coal company position.  But there were inadequate policies and procedures to ensure that such relevant information was provided to the independent pricing committee in a timely manner or even at all.  There was confusion among GLG’s fund managers, middle-office accounting personnel, and senior management about who was responsible for elevating valuation issues to the independent pricing committee.  

The SEC’s order finds that GLG Partners L.P. violated and GLG Partners Inc. caused violations of Sections 13(a), 13(b)(2)(A), and 13(b)(2)(B) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 12b-20, 13a-1, 13a-11, and 13a-13.  The order requires the firms to hire an independent consultant to recommend new policies and procedures for the valuation of assets and test the effectiveness of the policies and procedures after adoption.  The order directs the firms to cease and desist from violating or causing violations of various provisions of the federal securities laws.  The firms consented to the order without admitting or denying the charges.  The SEC is establishing a Fair Fund to distribute money to harmed fund investors.  The GLG firms agreed to pay disgorgement of $7,766,667, prejudgment interest of $437,679, and penalties totaling $750,000.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Jonathan Cowen, Ann Rosenfield, Robert Dodge, and Lisa Deitch.  The case arose from the SEC’s Aberrational Performance Inquiry, an initiative by the Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit that uses proprietary risk analytics to identify hedge funds with suspicious returns. Performance that is flagged as inconsistent with a fund’s investment strategy or other benchmarks forms a basis for further investigation and scrutiny.

The SEC appreciates the assistance of the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom.