New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Phillip Goldstein, activist hedge fund manager and long time vocal champion for hedge fund’s right to advertise, has just filed with the SEC to allow his fund “Opportunity Income Plus LP” to make public solicitations in compliance with the JOBS Act.

Phillip Goldstein stepped into the hedge fund spotlight in 2006 when he sued the SEC for their implementation of the “The Hedge Fund Rule” which if fully implemented would have required all hedge fund managers to register as Registered Investment Advisors. In Goldstein v. SEC the court sided with Goldstein and found that the SEC had overstepped its authority, and that hedge funds are not subject to SEC regulation under the Investment Company Act of 1940.

After the victory over the SEC, the securities regulators in the state of Massachusetts filed a complaint against Phillip Goldstein’s hedge fund Bulldog Investors, alleging that the funds had violated the ban on general solicitation by having their website accessible to the public.

“Before the JOBs Act there was a reign of terror, where hedge funds were scared to have a website or put their name on their door. Every legitimate business has a website, why do hedge funds have to be the only type of company that was required to have a password on their site” Phillip Goldstein said, in an interview with HedgeCo “The fear mongers and state regulators insisted that if hedge funds made public solicitations the sky would fall. This is simply much ado about nothing.”

Since the adoption of the JOBS Act, the SEC has required any hedge funds that wanted to advertise to file an additional Form D prior to advertising. While many predicted that hedge funds will flock to advertise, so far the reception has been tepid with only 31 hedge funds filing for this exemption since the rule went into effect on October 1st, 2013.

Philip Goldstein said that his funds had no interest in advertising, but stated that the 506(c) filing was a measure taken so that they could “answer questions from potential investors” and operate a website like any other business.

Aaron Wormus
CTO & Contributing writer at HedgeCo.net
aaron@hedgeco.net

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