New York (HedgeCo.net) – On Monday, government agents raided three large hedge funds, seizing documents from the offices of Level Global Investors, Diamondback Capital Management, and Loch Capital Management.

Former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Gerald Lefcourt, said in an interview with Bloomberg, that the search warrants are, “To simply scare people,” Lefcourt said. “And it certainly does have that effect.”

“The outcome of the coordinated raids in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation remains to be seen, however, once again it puts the investment and capital markets industries in the headlines.” Denise Valentine, senior analyst at hedge fund advisor Aite Group, said, “Of course we want our regulators to identify insider trading and we want investor protection. At the same time, the general public remains very skeptical of the financial community and the economy overall. We can assume that there was a collective sigh yesterday from a public that has grown increasingly exasperated.”

“We should expect more of this going forward, since the government and its regulators will need to demonstrate that they are on top of the financial business community.” Valentine said, “In the end, it’s the only way to restore credibility to the industry.”

Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.net
alex@hedgeco.net
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