Dude, Where is My Money?: The rogue hedge fund manager strikes again: Kirk Wright

The WSJ is reporting that he was convicted in the criminal case yesterday. He's to be sentenced August 26 and he faces a maximum sentence of 710 years, a $16M fine, and restitution of client's losses.

The most interesting thing in the report is that he lost almost all of the money he actually invested. It doesn't say what the amount is, but he took $150M from clients from 97 to 06.
 
Hedge fund exec commits suicide
PA SportsTicker
Published: Tuesday, May 27, 2008
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Kirk Wright, who recently was convicted in a fraud scheme involving professional football players, has committed suicide in his jail cell. He was 37.

Wright hanged himself Saturday at Union City jail, the Fulton County Medical Examiner's office said Sunday. No foul play is suspected in his death.

A jury convicted Wright on Wednesday of 47 counts of mail fraud, security fraud and money laundering stemming from a hedge fund investment scheme that bilked millions of dollars from numerous clients, including his own mother.

A Marietta, Georgia native, Wright faced up to 710 years in prison and already had been hit with a $20 million fine.

Wright's firm, International Management Associates, bilked approximately $150 million between 2001-2006 from a client base headlined by NFL players.

Several players learned that the money was missing and called on their investments in 2006, prompting the Harvard graduate to flee after using false brokerage reports to account for stock earnings.

Wright was arrested in May 2006, when he was discovered at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Miami Beach. Police discovered several fake identification and credit cards in his hotel room, where he was staying under an alias.

Wright had been detained without bond since his arrest.
 
I doubt this guy committed suicide. Possible, but not likely. People generally don't kill themselves by hanging, even if it's the best means available at the time.

I wonder if somebody in that jail was a friend/associate of one of the football players that got scammed. And I wonder if he thought he could curry favor with his wealthy NFL friend/associate.
 
Quote from optioncoach:

The only color that matters to me is green and if I was raising millions for a fund, I could care less the color of the skin of the person who wants to put it in. I doubt most large hedge funds would care as well as long as they raised the millions.
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This is the bottom line and it goes both ways.

What is being overlooked, is that Atlanta is a center for wealthy, successful black businessmen, actors/actresses, stars, etc. Most of it was built off the hip hop industry.
It's like a world of its own and it is kinda segregated. So what happens is that if you're a wealthy black man there and you want to invest your money with a fund, you are pressured by the black Atlanta social circle to keep it with a "brotha". Hence a perfect opportunity for a sheister like Kirk Wright. Madoff had the same stigma, he was the primary choice to invest for wealth Jews in NYC.

The only true color that matters in these situations is green. The guy is either a scumbag or he is legit. The investor either has money to invest or he does not. The strategy is real or BS.
 
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