Hedge Fund Chief to Plead Guilty to Investor Fraud

Keith G. Gilabert, the founder of an investment firm that operated a hedge fund called the GLT Venture Fund has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges that may have cost investors as much as $14 million, admitting that he lied to investors about the fraudulent operation. More than 40 investors poured money into Capital Management from September 2000 to January 2005, when the company was abruptly closed.

The Justice Department said Gilabert stole at least $2.5 million of investor money for his own use. And he continued marketing his fund throughout 2004, officials said, even though Capital Management’s investment advisor registration had been revoked by the California Department of Corporations in 2003, Gilabert declined to comment.

Both CMG, which was based in Valencia, and Gilabert were named in a federal lawsuit filed today by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Gilabert has agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department and securities regulators under terms of a plea agreement.

In the plea agreement Gilabert acknowledged that he operated a fraudulent hedge fund and lied to investors in an effort to convince them to invest with his fund. Gilabert was touting 27% returns at GLT in late 2004 and far from earning such returns, the fund lost more than $7 million and distributed to investors some $4.6 million in money falsely labeled as profits, securities officials charged. Gilabert concealed the fact that he had lost most of the investors’ funds and that he had misappropriated investors’ funds throughout most of GLT’s operation. Gilabert also admitted that he conspired with an account manager at a major brokerage firm to mislead CMG investors with regard to, among other things, the performance history of the GLT fund, the risk associated with investing in CMG, and the oversight of CMG by the major brokerage firm.

Upon entering his plea to the conspiracy charge, Gilabert will face a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. He was ordered to appear in District Court on May 22, his case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The SEC and the Justice Department said they were continuing to investigate Gilabert and those who worked with him.