Bloomberg- D.B. Zwirn & Co., the New York-based investment firm that was hobbled by disclosures of improper accounting, will liquidate its two largest hedge funds after clients asked to withdraw more than $2 billion. <\/p>\n
The firm will shut the domestic and offshore versions of the Special Opportunities Fund after its 2006 financial audit was delayed, leading to “a large number of investor redemptions,” according to a letter sent yesterday to clients. The funds have about $4 billion in assets, 80 percent of the firm’s total. <\/p>\n
The company, started by Daniel Zwirn in October 2001, expects to tell investors in March how it will return their money, according to the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News. It may take as many as four years to wind down the funds, whose holdings include hard-to-sell private-equity investments and derivatives based on the underlying value of debt securities. <\/p>\n