Jim Kelsoe, a top-ranked junk-bond fund manager since 2000, dropped to last place this year because of losses tied to mortgages for people with poor credit. Kelsoe’s $1.1 billion Regions Morgan Keegan Select High Income Fund fell 4.2 percent from the beginning of 2007 as defaults on subprime home loans reached a five-year high. The […]
Bear Stearns Cos. told investors in its two failed hedge funds that they’ll get little if any money back after “unprecedented declines” in the value of the securities used to bet on subprime mortgages. “This is a watershed,” said Sean Egan, managing director of Egan-Jones Ratings Co. in Haverford, Pennsylvania. “A leading player, which has […]
On July 2, 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency action in Dallas federal court to halt what the Commission contends is a fraudulent offering of securities, known as Secured Debt Obligations (“SDOs”), by Amerifirst Funding, Inc. and Amerifirst Acceptance Corporation (together, “Amerifirst”). The SDOs are notes purportedly secured by automobile financing receivables […]
A former hedge-fund trader pleaded guilty to criminal charges involving a scheme to trade on inside information about analysts’ ratings changes at UBS AG’s securities unit before the changes became public knowledge. Mark E. Lenowitz, who formerly traded equity securities on behalf of Chelsey Capital in New York and was a partner at Q Capital […]
Losses on mortgage-backed securities have forced an Irvine brokerage firm to begin shutting down its operations, people close to the company said Thursday. At least some of the losses were said to be incurred by clients of the brokerage, Brookstreet Securities. Because of the losses, brokerage regulator NASD told Brookstreet this week to limit its […]