Wall Street rocked by an $8 billion hedge fund's implosion

[mannmade]

I wonder if any of their insider trading info form the FDA included MannKind?

www.yahoo.com/finance/news/wall-street-rocked-8-billion-150229008.html

Excerpt from the article:

Just days before Visium announced the shut down, one of its top portfolio managers — Sanjay Valvani — was charged with wire and securities fraud. He is accused of using insider information from a Food and Drug Administration official to place trades on drug companies ahead of key FDA decisions from about 2005 through 2011.

[kc]

You have to wonder how many other hedge funds are there just like this one. They operate in the spaces that the average person does not see. They do not have to report until 90 days after the end of each quarter. And they play massive games. Yep the system is cooked against us. Hopefully this will send a shockwave or two to some hedge funds. But I doubt it

[kc]

I did not see that hedge fund listed on this listing of who holds MannKind shares. But as you can see the information is dated. So you can't accurately use this for anything.

www.holdingschannel.com/bystock/?symbol=mnkd

[mnholdem]

Hedge Fund Exec Accused of Paying Former FDA Official for Inside Information Found Dead in Apparent Suicide

6/21/2016 11:05:20 AM

Sanjay Valvani, a portfolio manager at Visium Asset Management who was charged with insider trading last week, was found dead Monday night.

"We mourn the tragic loss of Sanjay, a devoted father, husband, and friend," Jacob Gottlieb, Visium's founder, said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time."

A New York Police Department representative said Valvani was found by his wife and left a suicide note.

---

It's amazing how many executives linked with banking / securities scandals are showing up dead lately:

nypost.com/2016/06/12/why-are-so-many-bankers-committing-suicide/

This article includes a short video on the New York Post's coverage of "The Banker Suicides".  Are key figures in potential multi-$billion scandals being silenced, thereby cutting any and all links to the real masterminds?

Regarding Sanjay Valvani, the Wall Street Journal reported:

Mr. Valvani, 44 years old, was found by his wife in the bedroom of their Brooklyn home with a slash wound to his neck, said a New York Police Department spokesman. Source: www.wsj.com/articles/hedge-fund-manager-charged-in-visium-insider-trading-case-found-dead-in-apparent-suicide-1466518982

When is the last time you heard of somebody cutting their own throat?

[kc]

Another one bites the dust. Too bad it was not Martin S.

[karl]

Jun 20, 2016 7:42:22 GMT -5 kc said:

You have to wonder how many other hedge funds are there just like this one. They operate in the spaces that the average person does not see. They do not have to report until 90 days after the end of each quarter. And they play massive games. Yep the system is cooked against us. Hopefully this will send a shockwave or two to some hedge funds. But I doubt it

"Hopefully this will send a shockwave or two to some hedge funds."

Wrong.  This will make the Hedgies look for more secured ways of using the inside information.

[Deleted]

Jun 21, 2016 12:38:09 GMT -5 mnholdem said:

Hedge Fund Exec Accused of Paying Former FDA Official for Inside Information Found Dead in Apparent Suicide

6/21/2016 11:05:20 AM

Sanjay Valvani, a portfolio manager at Visium Asset Management who was charged with insider trading last week, was found dead Monday night.

"We mourn the tragic loss of Sanjay, a devoted father, husband, and friend," Jacob Gottlieb, Visium's founder, said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time."

A New York Police Department representative said Valvani was found by his wife and left a suicide note.

---

It's amazing how many executives linked with banking / securities scandals are showing up dead lately:

nypost.com/2016/06/12/why-are-so-many-bankers-committing-suicide/

This article includes a short video on the New York Post's coverage of "The Banker Suicides".  Are key figures in potential multi-$billion scandals being silenced, thereby cutting any and all links to the real masterminds?

Regarding Sanjay Valvani, the Wall Street Journal reported:

Mr. Valvani, 44 years old, was found by his wife in the bedroom of their Brooklyn home with a slash wound to his neck, said a New York Police Department spokesman. Source: www.wsj.com/articles/hedge-fund-manager-charged-in-visium-insider-trading-case-found-dead-in-apparent-suicide-1466518982

When is the last time you heard of somebody cutting their own throat?

I just made a post about this. I didnt realize its the same one. This was def a mob hit without a doubt.

[cm5]

Here's more of the story behind the collapse of Visium, end of Valvani: FDA-Securities Fraud details:

www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2016/06/15/former-fda-official-securities-fraud/

[cm5]

More links, more connections:  Link as previous post:  www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2016/06/15/former-fda-official-securities-fraud/

As for Johnston, in either late 2009 or early 2010, Valvani instructed him to get information about the status of the generic Lovenox applications, according to the feds. One was being developed by Momenta Pharmaceuticals. Johnston succeeded in doing so by reaching out to an FDA contact who shared what the feds described as “highly confidential” information kept in what the agency calls Tracking Documents.

Over the next several months, the fund bought large amounts of Momenta stock and shorted Sanofi shares. . .In July 2010, the FDA approved the Momenta drug and denied a Sanofi bid to prevent the approval. Momenta stock increased nearly 100 percent, while Sanofi stock sank. Johnston also provided information about two other generic Lovenox applications, and Valvani made a $7 million profit on Watson Pharmaceutical stock. Watson, now called Actavis, was one of the other two firms developing generic versions of Lovenox.

www.businessinsider.com/a-big-name-hedge-fund-manager-at-visium-has-turned-himself-in-2016-6

www.americanbazaaronline.com/2016/06/24/sanjay-valvani-left-suicide-note-behind-in-which-he-wrote-hes-innocent414273/

“He wasn’t just some kind of hardened investment guy,” said David Pyott, former chief executive officer of Allergan Plc, reported Bloomberg. “He was out-going, had charisma. That is why I was even more shocked by all of this.”

(BTW, David Pyott, the former Allergan chairman walked away with $534 million in cash after the company was acquired by Actavis.)

Shibani Malhotra, a former health-care industry analyst, said Valvani maintained his innocence in texts they shared last week. “He was an investor that had a high moral standard and moral code,” she said.

(BTW, Shibani Malhotra, recently of of Nomura Holdings, www.wikinvest.com/stock/Nomura_Holdings_(NMR), healthcare analyst, with this return on recommendations:  If you copied Shibani Malhotra's recommendations since 2010 and opened each position for the duration of 1 Year, then 37% of your transactions would have been profitable with an average return of -13.6% over No Benchmark.)

Prosecutors said Valvani personally made more than $32 million on the trades.

Valvani grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the son of immigrants from India. His father, C. Valvani, was director of drug delivery systems research at Upjohn Co., now part of Pfizer Inc., and the holder of several patents.
 
Sanjay Valvani attended the University of Michigan and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His first job on Wall Street was a summer internship at the now-defunct Bear Stearns Cos. in 2000. The following year he started covering specialty pharmacies as a sell-side associate at Salomon Smith Barney, according to his profile on Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business website.

In 2003, Valvani joined Balyasny Asset Management, where medical school graduate Jacob Gottlieb was a portfolio manager.
 
Valvani was responsible for as much as $2 billion of Visium’s $8 billion of assets under management at its peak. After Gottlieb announced in March that his firm was under investigation, investors started asking for their money back. Now Visium is selling or winding down its funds.