![]() Nieves also noted that couples who decided to pull out their money never returned to the circle of friends, and later told Nieves that they were not allowed back. She was told that Meyer had inherited money from his late father. They took frequent trips to places like Monaco, China and India. Their teen-aged son drove a Tesla, she said. She said she noticed the Meyers’ living more luxuriously. Johnson, a finance professor at Creighton University in Omaha.īut experts say such secrecy can also shroud fraud.Īnd, over time, Nieves said her doubts grew. Hedge funds are not subject to some of the regulations and disclosure rules that are designed to protect most other investors, said Robert R. Investment experts emphasized that it's not uncommon for hedge funds to keep information proprietary. When she’d ask for more information, Nieves said Meyer would become belligerent. ![]() The financial reports she received each month had few details about investment strategy or performance. “And to be honest, I was always afraid to deal with Joe. “The main reason I stayed was because of personal issues,’’ she said. But her friendship with Meyer’s wife and a mutual best friend who also was an investor made her reluctant. Years earlier, Nieves said she had been thinking about exiting the fund. “We are, as always, here to serve you and support your financial portfolio growth, and to allow you the ability to better provide for the safety and comfort of your family,” he wrote in the newsletter. “I am grateful to you, our investors, for your support throughout this negative publicity,’’ he wrote, “and am pleased to inform you that we are actually net plus in number of investors as well as in AUM (assets under management), both for 20 to date.”Īt the time, he also took the opportunity to inform a special group of investors, which included Nieves, that their investments had another solid year of performance, with a 9.3% return. “They continue to be perplexed by how a small hedge fund in Atlanta, Georgia can achieve such solid annual returns when other hedge funds are unable to do the same,’’ he wrote in the newsletter, which was part of the court documents filed by the SEC. When some investors started to question the fund’s operations, Meyer tried to quell their fears in an April 2017 newsletter. In 2016, Bloomberg posed questions about the fund’s performance and in 2017 reported that the SEC was investigating. He attributed the success to a computerized system he developed.īut that same year, then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp told Bloomberg News that his office was investigating “multiple irregularities” involving Statim and Arjun. Other services that track hedge funds also named Meyer’s among the best performing. In 2015, Bloomberg News ranked Arjun eighth among hedge funds with between $250 million and $1 billion in assets. The stellar performance caught the attention of the investment community. One document that Meyer gave to investors showed Arjun in May 2007 posting an average 49.86% annual return while the S&P 500 had gained less than 14%. Meyer’s response to the SEC complaint is due March 5.Īs early as 2007, when the hedge fund was created, Meyer reported rates of return that far exceeded any notable benchmarks. “All the money reported by third parties including the fund administrator and the accountant in fact is in the accounts of the limited partners invested in Arjun,” he said. Later, in a phone interview, Sadow said that investors who were promised no losses have not lost a single nickel. “The fund is 100% solvent,’’ Sadow wrote, “and is operated in compliance with a limited partnership agreement and a confidential private placement memorandum agreed to by each limited partner investor.” He employed outside accountants, independent traders and others to make sure that happened. Meyer’s primary goal, Sadow said, had been to make money for investors. His attorney for the SEC complaint, Steve Sadow, wrote in an email that Meyer adamantly denied the allegations. Meyer, through his attorney, declined an interview request from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I felt so betrayed,’’ Nilsa Nieves said. Bhagirath Majmudar, Statim Holdings and Opus Fund Services USA LLC, the third party administrator of the hedge fund Meyer operated, known as Arjun LP. In late January, Nieves and her husband, Edgard Nieves, filed a proposed class-action lawsuit that alleged a breach of fiduciary duty by Meyer, his father-in-law, Dr. Nilsa Algarin Nieves said she felt an instant connection with her when she was introduced to the couple in 2005. There were red flags that experts say might have alerted investors to be wary, such as the stellar returns Meyers’ fund reported earning in years that other investments faltered.īut any doubts apparently were outweighed by the trust the investors had in the couple - and the love they had for Majmudar, some investors said.
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