In an odd coincidence

Francesco Rusciano is out on bail – released to the custody of his parents who have put up their house to stop him fleeing.

This is a guy – who according to SEC filings – has been able to raise $30 million from 15 high net worth customers.  [Maybe raising hedge fund money is easier than it appears to this start-up… however if any rich folk from jurisdictions we can accept money from want to stump up we are keen to talk…  good terms for early customers...]

Anyway – the picture of Mr Rusciano with an unidentified female.

 

 
The report comes from a Connecticut paper.  Rob Varnon (the journalist) also notes (without credit) the detail first observed on this blog: 

In an odd coincidence, Rusciano was a sub-tenant of New York City investment adviser Paradigm Global, a subsidiary of a holding company owned by members of Vice President Joe Biden's family. Marc LoPresti, Paradigm's general counsel, said Monday Paradigm was subleasing space and Ponta Negra was referred to it by one of Paradigm's third-party marketers. LoPresti said "Paradigm is not under investigation."

 The Journalist thinks that the link between Paradigm and Rusciano is an odd coincidence. 

 In full treatment of the link we should also remind the journalist about a few more odd coincidences

(a)    That Paradigm and Rusciano shared more than an office - they shared marketing arrangements and a phone number,

(b)   the third party marketer in question (or at least its corporate office) was not licensed

(c)    the third party marketer in question (or the individual in charge) had previously been a full time employee of Paradigm

(d)   that this individual had caused their previous employer to settle claims for abuse of client funds in six figure amounts (whilst the marketer in question denied guilt)

(e)    that the individual had also been suspended from the securities industry and sacked for allegedly fraudulently abusing the bonus system of a previous employer (and in this case accepted a fine but neither accepted nor denied guilt)

(f)     that the third party marketer in question (company or individual uncertain) also introduced Paradigm to Alan Stanford’s organisation and that

(g)    Paradigm thought sufficiently highly of the Stanford organisation that they had a cobranded product

 

To this we can add the following odd coincidences:

 

(h)    that Paradigm had lent its name and reputation to another alleged fraudulent hedge fund – this one being Paradigm Global (Canada) renamed as Portus Asset Management and that fraud had been more than CDN700 million

(i)      that Paradigm claimed that it had 28 full time staff when very soon after it probably had less than ten

(j)     that Paradigm similarly had offices in Monte Carlo and Tokyo whereas the only places I can find sales staff from the period are in Orlando Florida and similar and the Tokyo and Monte Carlo offices were rapidly closed

(k)   that Paradigm until only a few days ago claimed on their website that they had never had a down year and they had decreasing volatility (a claim that disappeared only when pointed out on this blog)

(l)      that Paradigm claimed in public documents to have over $1.5 billion under management when it (at least very soon after) had less than one fifth that amount, and that the decline happened despite the positive returns better than indices and with decreasing volatility

(m)  that Hunter Biden and James Biden in sworn affidavits alleged that James Park (then the manager of Paradigm) was mostly absent and had a substance abuse problem but that all is well with James Park now as he is back at Paradigm

(n)    that Hunter and James Biden in the same affidavits alleged that Paradigm had misrepresented their returns

(o)   that Paradigm claimed its domestic outsource arrangements were with Global Fund Services LLC – a company supposedly in Atlanta but which is no longer in Georgia at Whitepages.com, (they do have some relationships with BISYS – now Citigroup)

(p)   that Paradigm’s offshore fund administration is supposed to be at Folio Administrators and they claim in marketing documents that they have had that arrangement since 2002 whereas Folio Administrators in an email to me claim it only since 2004

(q)   that on the SEC database exists an audit statement qualified as to the security of asset custody, and

(r)     that Paradigm hired at least one other marketing staff member with long histories of alleged violations of broker conduct rules.

 

These odd coincidences were made clear on this blog.  Full documentary backing for these coincidences is provided in this post – a post which almost nobody linked to or commented on – but which took a considerable time to write and which I largely researched before Ponta Negra was prosecuted by the SEC.

In an odd coincidence I am frustrated.  Partly because it is all odd coincidences.

Mr LoPresti says that “Paradigm is not under investigation”.

In an odd coincidence I believe him.  He is a lawyer and there is no reason why I should not believe him.