I read somewhere that he heavily invested in one stock that resulted major lose. His book regarded as very good read by many, don't understand why someone like him has to get so reckless? Mark, 45 will be 7+3=10 years under control now, his career seem to be over I enjoyed reading his book, but this story is very saddening http://www.elitetrader.com/bo/index.cfm?action=view&B_ID=72&start=6 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Litigation Release No. 20145 / June 6, 2007 United States v. Mark R. Conway, 06-CR-10236-PBS (D. Mass.) Securities and Exchange Commission v. Mark R. Conway and Groundswell Partners LLC, 05-12209-RWZ (D. Mass.) Massachusetts Hedge Fund Adviser Sentenced to 7 Years The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that on May 7, 2007, Mark R. Conway, formerly of Waltham, Massachusetts, was sentenced to seven years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, a $1,300 special assessment fine and payment of restitution in the amount of $20 million based upon his guilty plea to criminal charges brought by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts pursuant to a criminal Information. On October 23, 2006, Conway pleaded guilty to 13 counts of mail and wire fraud in connection with a scheme in which he defrauded approximately 50 investors of more than $20 million. The U.S. Attorney's Office has civilly forfeited approximately $15 million in funds from bank accounts controlled by Conway and will apply the forfeited funds to the restitution amount to be returned to investors. On November 4, 2005, the Commission filed an enforcement action and obtained emergency relief (including an asset freeze) against Conway and his firm, Groundswell Partners based on conduct similar to that in the criminal Information referred to above. On June 30, 2006, the Commission obtained default judgments against Groundswell Partners and Groundswell Capital, a relief defendant. The Commission is continuing to litigate its action against Conway. Additional information can be found in Litigation Release Nos. 19460, 19473, 19773 and 19807. http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2007/lr20145.htm
Ouch. Can't help but think there will be many many more of these stories soon. The explosion in new HFs and traders/managers that think they have an edge, or that *think* they are the next Buzzy, will probably be followed by the "implosion" of 90% of 'em. And the pressure of impending failure will cause many to cheat. I still theorize that the success rate of all market participants stays nearly constant across all groups, given enough time. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/searc...=1813761&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending
thanks for posting that. i consider his book really good as well. according to an old article in google's cache, "telling them his fund would follow a market-timing strategy. Instead, he allegedly deviated from that strategy and lied to investors about it, creating false documents in an effort to win further investment." http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cach...dmits+To+Defrauding"&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us other things: http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Conway_Mark_931813757.aspx and: "But late last month, Mr. Conway's partner, Aaron Behle, wrote to fellow investors that Mr. Conway, an author of number of books and newsletters about investing, confessed to Mr. Behle that he had created 'fictitious brokerage statements, fictitious ccounting reports, fictitious audit reports, a fictitious auditor, and fund performance information,' according to Mr. Behle's letter." and: http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2006/08/07/story13.html
since he started in '01, my guess would be he didn't see the signs of continuing breakdown in '01 (pre 9/11), ignored stops... took a big hit after 9/11... and then stayed short for a long time after, thus absorbing hits all the way up. the key thing from my guess though - ignoring stops.
Among 50 investors, there were family members and friends too. He was the only trader for that hedge fund company. He start up this fund with his partner on $14Million, which is good amount. I guess he got greedy, used high leverage and didn't efficiently diversified among many products.
what!!? this has nothing to do with diversification or leverage.......it has to do with FRAUDULENT and ILLEGAL activity. This type of criminal behaviour is to blame for the coming potential heavy regulations. It really sucks. regards, surf
I know what you saying. He could report his losses and finaly that may was end to his business. But he thought he could recover the loses in some ways and get away with it and survive. Btw his store is closed too, you can't place online orders www.acmetrader.com
finally, finally SEC get tough on this kind of criminal activities, either that or he had an incompetent lawyer.