A world away from Wall Street and the tech money culture of Silicon Valley, the Einhorn family started a venture capital firm here [in Milwaukee], which raised a $40 million fund last year. David Einhorn is the largest investor in the fund, run by his brother, Daniel, and their father, Stephen. The firm, Capital Midwest Fund, also led by another partner, Alvin Vitangcol, aims to tap the Midwestern work ethic and has ambitions of changing the way early stage investments are run. “This isn’t Silicon Valley, where you’re almost encouraged to fail a couple times, and your next opportunity is in walking distance,” said Daniel Einhorn, who is 40… if a company financed by the new fund doesn’t provide the investors an exit within five years — through an acquisition — then Capital Midwest requires the company to buy back its shares. Daniel Einhorn doesn’t hesitate to put executives on the spot. Last month, surrounded by Brewers memorabilia in his office, he questioned the chief executive of one of his portfolio companies. It was a start-up based in Ann Arbor, Mich., called CytoPherx, and the firm was discussing clinical trials of a medical device that were not going smoothly. At one point, with the receiver on mute, Mr. Einhorn said the chief executive was making a “poor me” excuse. [Dealbook]
brothers
David Einhorn’s Brother Will Rip Out The Hearts Of Underperforming Companies And Shove Them Down Their Throats, But In A Polite, Midwestern Way
By Bess LevinRaj Rajaratnam’s Brother Wants People To Send Letters To The Judge About His Character
By Bess Levin
He requested their help last week and even included some links on the proper formatting to use when drafting missives in an attempt to convince a judge to be lenient in sentencing.
From: Rengan Rajaratnam
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2011Dear Friends,
I want to thank you for your support. Your calls, emails, texts, and inquiries are constant reminders that through this dark, tragic time, Raj and the family are not alone.
As we prepare for the appeals process, we need your help and I am I only sending this letter to a handful of people. The sentencing phase is coming up relatively quickly and the federal guidelines are calling for 15 to 19 years in jail. The guidelines are harder and less flexible than many prison sentences for violent and predatory offenders. This is simply unfair, and we are praying for leniency from the judge while we prepare for the appeal.
In the meantime, on behalf of Raj and the family, I would like to enlist your support one last time. Positive character letters from family, friends, and colleagues that know Raj well can play a pivotal role in helping persuade the Hon. Judge Holwell to be fair, and lenient during Raj’s sentencing.
We’re into Week 3 of deliberations on the insider trading case, with jurors asking to play conversations between Raj and his former friends/sources of what may or may not have been material non-public information, in addition to a phone call between Raj and his little brother, who could not match big bro’s skills in (ALLEGED) insider trading and lady slaying, though he tried his hardest. [Reuters, WSJ]
Raj Rajaratnam Defense Team Would Prefer Jury Not Hear About His Brother (Allegedly) Destroying Evidence Of (Alleged) Insider Trading
By Bess Levin
Shortly after Raj Rajaratnam was arrested on Oct. 16, 2009, his brother Rengan went into the Galleon Group LLC’s co-founder’s office and removed his sibling’s private notebooks, former Galleon trader Adam Smith told prosecutors, according to a court filing made yesterday. Raj Rajaratnam’s lawyers yesterday filed a legal request asking a judge to bar Smith from testifying about Rengan Rajaratnam’s actions on Oct. 16. Prosecutors wanted to offer the account from Smith, who may testify for the government this week, “to prove the existence of the charged conspiracy and Rengan’s membership in it,” they wrote in court papers. [Bloomberg, earlier]
Says the Journal. Read more »
Ping (Jiang) Capital Down 4.96 Percent For January, Ping Jiang Interested In Meeting With *You* Today
By Bess Levin
Ping Jiang, maestro of the whiteboard marker, was fired from SAC Capital in March 2008, (not because of the push-up bras but due to poor performance). He branched out on his own soon thereafter but we’d heard nary a peep since then re: returns or whether or not he was making employees sew their own dresses. No word on the latter yet (speak up, young seamstresses!) but– and I bite my tongue saying this– I’m slightly worried about how the team will be able to cover the costs associated with new “office supplies,” after ending January down nearly 5 percent. Granted, this may have been a blip, following a stellar 2009, when the fund was up 192.81%, presumably thanks to the official implementation of PJ’s trading philosophy (no more hiding it behind closed doors). And while we’re on the subject– it seems as though Jiang is keeping it in the family, having hired brother (?) Justin as a manager, which as an interesting twist to the BJ for trade approval model. Finally, the most important news! The team is looking for investors for a new fund, Ping Emerging Markets Macro, and would love to get your ass in to meet Mr. J today– get a piece of this while it’s still hot.
From: [redacted]
To: [redacted]
Subject: Ping Emerging Markets Macro Fund
Dear [redacted],
Ping Capital Management Ltd was founded by Ping Jiang and partners in March 2008. Ping Jiang splits his time between a research office based in Shanghai and a trading and operations office in New York. Ping Jiang is currently in New York and would like to meet with interested investors to discuss their current fund, Ping Exceptional Value Fund, and a new fund, Ping Emerging Markets Macro Fund, that is expected to launch H1 2010. Short biographies for Ping and the partners are attached.
The Ping Exceptional Value Fund is a Latin American- and Asian-focused macro strategy that combines quantitative micro analysis with discretionary macro analysis and trading. The Fund trades across two different time frames; long-term concentrated value investments in themes that are determined to be extremely undervalued and short-term
active trading around the core themes.
The Ping Emerging Markets Macro Fund will use the same research process as the flagship fund but will have a more significant focus on the short term trading element.
Please let us know if you would like to arrange a meeting, schedule a call or would like to receive any additional information from the manager.
The Journal reports that Raj Rajaratnam was deposed by federal authorities in 2007 in an insider-trading investigation involving “an unrelated hedge fund.” And by unrelated he means it was his brother Rengan’s fund, Sedna Capital, which was described that year by Total Alternatives as a “Galleon spin-off.” So this is why Raj argued yesterday that all that evidence the feds might’ve gathered re: insider trading at Galleon via wiretaps shouldn’t be held against him because he was already co-operating/handing over docs in the other case. Little bro’s fund closed in June 2007 supposedly due to poor performance though perhaps the matter of being investigated for fraud played a tiny part as well (the last reported returns for Sedna, in January ’07, had their domestic fund down -8.2%).
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