Hedge Fund Run by Biden’s Son and Brother Had Links to Stanford
A hedge fund owned by Vice President Joe Biden’s son and brother had links to a Texas billionaire accused in an $8 billion fraud.
The hedge fund, launched in June 2007, was owned through a holding company by Biden’s son, Hunter, and his brother, James, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.). Known as the Paradigm Stanford Capital Management Core Alternative Fund, it was marketed by companies controlled by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, who has been accused in a civil complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The complaint alleges Stanford engaged in a massive fraud by selling certificates of deposit based on unsubstantiated claims of improbable returns. After the civil charges were announced, the hedge fund terminated its relationship with Stanford entities.
Stanford companies also invested about $2.7 million in the hedge fund, according to the newspaper and a summary by the Associated Press. The lawyer for the hedge fund, Marc LoPresti, told the Wall Street Journal his client has offered to turn over the $2.7 million to a court-appointed receiver in the SEC case.
The Bidens’ hedge fund lost 9.5 percent last year and had assets of almost $50 million as of November 2008.
LoPresti told the newspaper that the Bidens never met or even talked to R. Allen Stanford. “There is no connection between the Bidens and Allen Stanford,” he said. “There never was any meeting between any member of the Biden family, no phone calls, zero correspondence.”
