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Friday, October 30, 2009

Feds pursue fund manager they say stole $1M

A federal judge froze the assets of an $8.3-million Chicago-based hedge fund after a federal regulator sued the fund’s manager for misappropriating $1 million from his investors.

Richmond H. Hamilton Jr., who manages Raleigh Capital Management Inc. from his home in Morocco, diverted the money to pay for personal expenses including an airplane and the lease on a car in the U.S., according to a complaint filed Wednesday in Chicago by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Mr. Hamilton also faked real estate sales to the fund and withdrew money to pay himself for the sham property sales, regulators say.

Mr. Hamilton’s alleged misdoings date back to 2004, but were only discovered in June after the Chicago-based National Futures Assn. opened an audit in response to an investor complaint that Mr. Hamilton had blocked withdrawals from the fund, according to an affidavit in the case.

Raleigh Capital had 28 investors at the end of December, the CFTC says.

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