Hunter Biden and PARADIGM
"At various stages Paradigm Global has claimed to have 1.8 billion in funds under management or advice. That would make it a good business.
Paradigm Global has however been in some reputation trouble twice lately. Firstly they co-branded a fund with Alan Stanford which (at best) suggests sloppy due diligence. This was reported here in the WSJ.
Secondly they housed Ponta Negra – an allegedly fraudulent hedge fund that has just been charged by the SEC. Not only did they allow Ponta Negra to use their offices but they allowed Ponta Negra to use their marketing machine. This was first reported on this blog here.
Sloppy two times over calls for a little more due diligence on Paradigm Global.
Firstly the business was not started by the Bidens – it was purchased by them. It was started by Dr James Park. When the Bidens purchased the business they believed it to have 1.5 billion of funds under management. This little section from an affidavit signed by James Biden (the VP’s brother) is revealing. The affidavit is here.
(a). The Paradigm Hedge Funds had only between two and three hundred million dollars under management, which were leveraged to over five hundred million, not the more than $1.5 billion under management represented to us by Lotito and Fasciana.
(b) The returns on the Paradigm Hedge Funds were not as represented to us by Lotito and Fasciana; and (with editing)
(d). The primary manager of the funds, Dr. James Park, had an apparent substance abuse problem and had been an absentee manager for several years…
Now please put this in perspective. The Bidens – mostly through failure to do proper due diligence – seem to have wound up in control of a fund of hedge funds which they claim (in sworn affidavit) that
• Had less than a fifth the funds under management that they represented to their customers,
• Had misrepresented their returns and
• Had a primary manager who had “an apparent substance abuse problem”.
Now if you were told a fund manager only had a fifth the funds that he represented to the world, had misrepresented his returns and had a primary manager with a substance abuse problem what you say it is?
Whatever – it quacks.
Now this affidavit was signed 13 April 2007. I presume it is the truth otherwise James Biden is guilty of perjury.
The affidavit is signed a few months after Hunter Biden resigned as the CEO of Paradigm Global – a position he took up in late 2006.
Now I am going to give you one more detail. In 2006 Paradigm represented that they had 28 staff. They represented that they had offices in multiple cities including a largish office in New York on Fifth Avenue. I have uploaded a few of their marketing documents here and here and here."
https:// brontecapital.blogspot.com/2009/04/economics-of-paradigm-global-alleged.html