The Securities and Exchange Commission has fined an offshore hedge fund for illegal short-selling of 18 companies.

The culprit, Victoire Finance Capital, is based in New York and was founded in 2003. The firm serves as the investment adviser to Victoire Finance et Gestion, a Netherlands Antilles-based private offshore hedge fund. According to the SEC, from February 2004 until August 2005, the fund sold short securities of eighteen issuers including, Wynn Resorts and Weyerhaeuser Co., realizing profits of $168,139.

Most of the transactions followed the same general pattern: VFC sold securities short either the day of, or the day before, the pricing of the public offering and then covered all or part of the short position with shares that it purchased in the offering, the SEC says.

The firm has been ordered to pay disgorgement of $168,139 and prejudgment interest of $132,491.