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Calif. Hedge Fund Fraudster Pleads Guilty

A Northern California man has pleaded guilty to charges that he lied to investors about his hedge fund’s returns.

Alexander Trabulse pleaded guilty to mail fraud as part of a deal with prosecutors. Trabulse was accused of using his Fahey Fund as a personal kitty, spending investor money on cars, a home-theater system and an overseas shopping allowance for his ex-wife, all the while boasting to investors about astronomical—and, apparently, fictional—returns of upwards of 200%, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also let his daughter use a debit card linked to one of the fund's bank accounts to buy furniture, airline tickets and to pay for her 2007 honeymoon in Panama.

In 2006, some 165 investors invested $17.6 million in Trabulse’s funds, whose value were inflated to $50 million when, in fact, they were only worth about $12 million.

Trabulse was sued by the SEC in 2007 and in April, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco entered a final judgment against Trabulse, ordering that his assets be liquidated and that he pay a $250,000 civil penalty. He was arrested in January at San Francisco International Airport after returning from France, where he reportedly spends half the year.


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