Boom! A Bet Against Stocks Blows Up Fund
By Jaye Scholl
The Manhattan Investment Fund, a $500 million hedge fund that bet against Internet stocks and other U.S. equities, has suffered disastrous losses and its general partner, Michael Berger, is cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other U.S. authorities.
Berger said Friday that Deloitte & Touche, the fund's auditors, had withdrawn its approval of financial reports covering three years, from the fund's inception in 1996 through 1998.
"Financial statements distributed over the last several years have been inaccurate and the fund's actual net assets are substantially less than those previously reported," according to a statement Berger read over the telephone to Barron's on Friday. He declined to be more specific, but one investor told Managed Account Reports, which tracks hedge-fund performance, that the fund's assets were 97% lower than reported.
"The record will show that I had honest intentions," a subdued Berger told Barron's. "I made mistakes, but I haven't stolen anything. And whatever the shareholders may think of me, I am going to try to recover the losses in whatever form that may take."
Berger, a 29-year-old Austrian, emigrated to the U.S. in the early 1990s and set up his hedge fund in 1996.
He described his fund as having a short bias. "I put my bearish assumptions to work in the fund," he said. The investment strategy included shorting stocks of companies with large market capitalizations, as well as Internet stocks. Short-sellers have been decimated in the bull market.
"Things went against me, that's exactly what happened," Berger lamented. Asked about the fund issuing misleading financial statements, the hedge-fund manager replied, " I used poor judgment. The intention was not bad."
The apparent collapse of Manhattan Investment Fund followed a series of events in Bermuda, where the fund's administrative services were handled by an affiliate of Ernst & Young. The affiliate, Fund Administration Services (Bermuda) Ltd., quit as administrator for Manhattan Capital Management, the fund's portfolio manager, on January 12, citing misrepresentation of the fund's assets.
A Bloomberg report said the administrator quit after learning that Deloitte & Touche had been fired by Manhattan Capital Management, following the accountants' decision to withdraw its approval of the audited statements.
"At this time, I am less concerned for myself than my shareholders," commented Berger, who interrupted the conversation to kiss a tearful secretary goodbye for the weekend.
"Everyone is crying here," he said.
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