What Can Hedge Fund Managers Learn From the SEC’s Failure to Catch Madoff? An Interview with Charles Lundelius, Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting, Inc.

FTI Consulting Inc. (FTI), a global business advisory firm, substantially assisted the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of Inspector General (OIG) in preparation of its report on the agency’s responses – or failures to respond – to a series of “red flags” regarding Bernard Madoff and Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BMIS).  For more on that report, see “SEC Recommends More Hedge Fund Oversight in Audit on Its Failure to Uncover Madoff Fraud; House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Questions SEC Competence,” Hedge Fund Law Report, Vol. 2, No. 38 (Sep. 24, 2009).  Charles Lundelius, a Senior Managing Director in the FTI Forensic and Litigation Consulting Practice, led the FTI engagement team, and thus has a uniquely clear perspective on the OIG’s review, the omissions in the SEC’s approach as determined by the OIG, structural flaws at the SEC as identified by the OIG and the OIG’s suggestions for remedying those flaws.  The Hedge Fund Law Report recently interviewed Lundelius, focusing on his experience assisting the OIG in preparation of its report.  The full transcript of that interview is included in this issue of the Hedge Fund Law Report, and touches on topics including: what FTI is and what they do; the most salient red flags that were missed by the SEC in the Madoff context; structural problems that may exist at the SEC and OCIE; the tendency of investigators to view new evidence in light of old experience; how the SEC – and for that matter, hedge funds and funds of funds – can use news and information services to discover information that may lead to red flags and ultimately to decisions against investments or in favor of redemptions; how the OIG’s report can offer tips to hedge funds of funds on how to conduct effective due diligence and how to detect fraud; and the role of hedge fund manager Renaissance Technologies in the Madoff investigation.

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