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20 Mar 2007

Mother & Son Team Charged With Hedge Fund Scheme

U.S. Attorney Kevin J. O’Connor announced that a federal grand jury in New Haven NY returned a four-count Indictment charging Ayferafat Yalincak, also known as "Jackie Yalincak," and "Irene Kelly," age 50, and her son, Hakan Yalincak, also known as "Hagen Yalincak," age 21, both Turkish citizens, with operating a multi-million dollar investment hedge fund fraud scheme.

The conspiracy charge carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years and a fine of up to $250,000. Each wire fraud charge carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000.

According to documents filed with the Court and statements made in court, Ayferafat Yalincak and Hakan Yalincak solicited approximately $7 million from several investors for their fake hedge fund. Ayferafet Yalincak, 52, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, but tried to downplay her role in the hedge fund scheme she attributed to her 22-year-old son, Hakan.

Prosecutors say Hakan Yalincak charmed his way into the exclusive world of Greenwich high finance by posing as an heir to a wealthy Turkish family. He moved counterfeit checks and brokered deals with a Kuwaiti financier. Ayferafet Yalincak told a federal judge last year that she attended meetings with investors and allowed her son to present her as a member of an exceedingly wealthy Turkish family who was going to invest millions in his hedge fund.

Prosecutors say Ayferafet Yalincak was responsible for an intended loss of $5.3 million and an actual loss of $3.9 million after some of the money was returned to investors.

"This mother and son team are alleged to have defrauded several sophisticated investors out of a substantial sum of money," U.S. Attorney O’Connor stated. "This Office places a high priority on investigating and vigorously prosecuting investor fraud schemes. This investigation is ongoing." The case has been investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Investec-Blackfish Hedge Fund Launch

Investec Bank and Blackfish Capital Management launched a long/short natural resources hedge fund on March 1 with a plan to raise $300 million over the next six to 12 months from undervalued stocks in the mining and resources sector.

With a $40 million Equity at Launch, the Blackfish-Investec Resources Special Situations Fund's prime broker is Goldman Sachs, with Walkers as Law firm and Butterfield Bank as administrator, Kinetic Partners will Audit the new hedge fund.

The Blackfish-Investec Resources Special Situations Fund is domiciled in the Cayman Islands. Targeted primarily at institutional investors, the the hedge fund strategy will be to achieve absolute returns through strategic investments in the small to mid-cap resources sector focused on value opportunities on the long and short side. The manager will trade the underlying commodities to provide a hedge to the market, actively managing commodity price risk.

Investec and Blackfish have each invested $20 million into the fund as seed capital. The hedge fund investment team is led by Martyn Konig, chief executive of Blackfish Capital Management and George Rogers, head of commodities and resource finance at Investec Bank.

Established in 1974, Investec is a specialist international banking group that provides a diverse range of financial products and services to a niche client base in the UK and Australia as well as South Africa, its country of origin, and various other countries. Investec Bank (UK) is a unit of South African banking group Investec Plc.