Galleon Hedge Fund Case Wins Temporary Reprieve

HedgeCo News - Hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam won an emergency order relieving him from having to turn over wiretap recordings in the SEC v Galleon case, according to a Reuters report.

Because of legal hurdles in obtaining the 14,000 wiretap intercepts, the SEC was seeking it from Rajaratnam and his co-defendant, Danielle Chiesi.

Rajaratnam’s lawyer last month attacked the U.S. government’s wiretap evidence saying he would file a motion to suppress the telephone recordings which were used to arrest Rajaratnam and more than a dozen other people in the Galleon raid.

The temporary stay was granted late yesterday by U.S. Court of Appeals, Reuters said. The reprieve came just two days after a U.S. District Court Judge ordered the deadline of Feb. 15 for Rajaratnam and Chiesi to surrender the recordings to the SEC.

Rajaratnam and Chiesi are being accused of insider trading and securities fraud, enabling the pair to generate $49 million in profit.

Reuters says the majority of the stocks are in technology, including, IBM, Intel, Akamai Technologies Inc, Polycom Inc, Hilton Hotels Corp, Google Inc, Sun Microsystems Inc SUNW.TI, Clearwire Corp, Advanced Micro Devices, ATI Technologies Inc and eBay Inc.

A civil lawsuit is scheduled for August 2, 2010. The prosecution has also indicted Rajaratnam on criminal charges.

Judge Upholds 'Terminator' Sale To Hedge Fund

HedgeCo News - The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles has agreed to uphold the hedge fund Pacificor's purchase of the 'Terminator' franchise rights from Halcyon Holding Group LLC, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Halcyon Holdings had accepted a deal from hedge fund Pacificor on Tuesday after a five-hour auction, according to a reports.

The Terminator rights were sold for $29.5 million, following a legal battle in which Halcyon Holding was forced to file for bankruptcy, the case was started by the hedge fund which won the bidding wars, Pacificor.

Columbia Pictures Industries Inc. and Lions Gate Films Inc.'s final offer was $28.5 million, plus $5 million for each of the first three sequels, but eventually the team lost out to the frenetic bidding of the hedge fund.

"We're very pleased," hedge fund attorney David B. Shemano said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

"Not only did Halcyon receive the green light to sell the "Terminator" rights to Pacificor but the production company was finally able to resolve a dispute it had with the hedge fund during the sale process," Shemano said.