One year ago
»» Hedge fund managers assembled at the Greenwich, Conn. home of SAC Capital Advisors founder Steve Cohen for a strategic pow-wow on how to help Republican Party candidates win the upcoming midterm elections.
Attendees included Bruce Kovner of Caxton Associates, Paul Singer of Elliott Management, Daniel Senor of Rosemont Capital, and various GOP operatives. At the time, Elliott was the top hedge fund contributor to Republicans for the election cycle, having given away 97% of its $1.1 million in political donations to the GOP, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan influence tracking group.
The donations apparently helped, as the Republicans retook control of the House of Representatives in November. Many hedge fund managers haven’t picked their candidates for the 2012 cycle, but early numbers from the CRP show that Elliott is now only the fourteenth biggest hedge fund donor for the next election cycle while Paulson & Co. is, by far, the most generous hedge fund donor, having given $1.5 million, mostly to Republicans.
»» Peter Thiel of Clairum Capital Management and Paul Singer of Elliott Management announced they had teamed up with former Bush aide Ken Mehlman, who now works for private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, for a fundraiser in support of gay marriage.
The September fundraiser was earmarked to support the legal challenge to Proposition 8, a California constitutional amendment stating that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid in the Golden State. The event at Singer’s New York City home reportedly raised more than $1.2 million.
Although the Prop 8 challenge is still ongoing, New York State gay rights supporters won a huge victory earlier this summer when Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a law legalizing same-sex marriage. Political analysts credited major donations from New York City’s financial elite for helping lobby the measure to pass the Republican-controlled State Senate. Among those donors were reportedly Singer, Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management and Dan Loeb of Third Point.
Five years ago
»» Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) demanded that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission immediately turn over documents related to the agency’s handling of an inquiry into alleged insider trading at Art Samberg’s $7.1 billion Pequot Capital Management.
In a letter to SEC chairman Christopher Cox, Grassley said he was concerned because Gary Aguirre, the lawyer in charge of the investigation, had been dismissed from the agency. Aguirre claimed the probe was quashed because of the risk it would touch John Mack, the politically connected chief executive and chairman of Morgan Stanley. Mack and Samberg are long-time acquaintances.
Grassley continued firing off public letters to the SEC about Pequot until 2009, when he bragged that the SEC had implemented reforms he’d suggested intended to prevent an investigator from being fired for doing his job, but lamented that “the SEC has refused to hold anyone accountable for the misconduct in this case, which was verified by two independent inquiries.” He also helped steer $1 million in financing to the SEC Office of Inspector General, the watchdog that investigates allegations of SEC misconduct.
Samberg shut down Pequot in 2009 in the wake of the insider trading investigation. “Public disclosures about the continuing investigation have cast a cloud over the firm and have become a source of personal distraction,” Samberg wrote at the time. He agreed in 2010 to pay $28 million to settle the allegations without admitting or denying wrongdoing.
Gary Aguirre turned his dismissal into a new career as a plaintiff’s attorney representing whistleblowers and investors. He returned to the news this month as the attorney representing Darcy Flynn, a 13-year employee of the SEC who alleged that the agency has, for nearly two decades, been systematically and illegally destroying records of preliminary investigations. The SEC has denied that its actions were illegal.
