The U.K. Serious Fraud Office reopened a criminal investigation into the collapse of hedge fund Weavering Capital (UK) Ltd.
The SFO probe relates to interest rate swaps between the fund and a company in the British Virgin Islands which “had the effect of inflating the net asset value of the fund,” the agency said in statement on its website.
Weavering Capital, which once had about $640 million under management, collapsed in March 2009 after discovering the counterparty for its biggest trading position was controlled by the fund’s manager. The SFO last year dropped its initial criminal probe into the fund’s founder, Magnus Peterson, because it didn’t think it could win a conviction.
The SFO decision “is welcomed by Weavering’s investors,” Barnaby Stueck, a lawyer for Duff and Phelps Corp., the fund’s liquidators, said in a telephone interview in London today. “They and the professional advisers involved in the case will provide every assistance to the SFO.”
Monty Raphael, Peterson’s attorney, didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment. The Financial Times reported on the SFO investigation yesterday.
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