Another Regulator Piles on Brian Hunter

Brian Hunter, former head trader of the world-class hedge fund disaster Amaranth Advisors, got another kick in the slats today. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission wants Amaranth and Hunter to pay $291 million in fines and penalties for manipulating natural gas futures.

Yesterday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed similar charges against the website-suing trader and Amaranth, which was the biggest hedge fund collapse in history.

Hey, I have a question: isn't market manipulation against the law? Don't people go to prison for that? Just wondering. After all, it seems to me that what these guys are talking about is a lot worse than insider trading.



Corporate cretin Patrick Byrne of Overstock.com, who blames all his company's failings on hedge funds, once said that he doesn't dislike all hedge funds, just the baddies -- in other words, all hedge funds except the one run by his brother, or the one through which he owns the bulk of the company's shares.

I think I have found a hedge fund honcho who would melt Patrick Byrne's heart.

P.S. I wonder how investors in Solengo Capital, Hunter's new plaything, feel about their fair-haired boy?

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.



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