Globe and Mail – Gradient Analytics Inc. has built a lucrative business offering independent research to investors, but its reputation is now being hammered by lawsuits that allege it is little more than a rewrite shop for hedge funds.<\/p>\n
Gradient, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., is named as one of the key defendants in a $4.6-billion (U.S.) lawsuit by Mississauga-based Biovail Corp. that alleges the research firm participated in a wide-ranging and illegal conspiracy to manipulate the stock market on behalf of a prominent hedge fund, SAC Capital Management LLC.<\/p>\n
The allegations have not been proven.<\/p>\n
For Gradient, the Biovail suit is case of d\u00c3\u0192\u00c2\u00a9j\u00c3\u0192\u00c2\u00a0 vu.<\/p>\n
Last summer, embattled Internet discounter Overstock.com sued Gradient and a separate hedge fund, making essentially the same allegations that Biovail has \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that the supposedly independent research firm allowed a hedge fund to ghost-write inaccurate and negative reports on a target company and timed the release of the report to benefit the fund’s trading strategy.<\/a><\/p>\n