"LTCM hedge fund threatened with eviction-Newsweek"
Sunday April 11, 5:14 pm Eastern Time
LTCM hedge fund threatened with eviction-Newsweek
NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) - Long Term Capital Management (LTCM), the huge hedge fund whose near collapse threatened the stability of global markets last year, is being threatened with eviction by its landlord in a dispute over some $3 million in rent, according to the weekly newsmagazine Newsweek.
The management firm behind the fund, whose demise was avoided with billions of dollars in bail-out money from a group of major U.S. banks, has not paid its $1.5 million in annual rent since it moved into its Greenwich, Conn., offices in 1997, according to the magazine's latest issue to hit newsstands on Monday.
The firm, which received its eviction notice last week, said it refused to pay the rent because the landlord had not fixed a water leak in the basement, the magazine said.
''If they'd fix the building we'd start paying rent,'' it quoted a spokesman for the management firm as saying.
In a legal twist, the firm was also trying to throw out its landlord, whose building, the Osprey House in downtown Greenwich, has been in bankruptcy since 1995, it said.
The firm became the mortgage holder for the building after buying the mortgage to get the necessary approvals to move into the building, it said.
''LTCM now wants the bankruptcy court to oust the landlord, Musallam A. Musallam, who resides in Saudi Arabia, in a plan that would give it the building at a bargain price,'' the magazine said.
The landlord's lawyer, David Rosner, said the fund's management firm was actually preventing Musallam from repairing the supposed leak in order to force his ouster, it said.
No immediate comment was available from the New York law firm that has represented the fund in the past.
A hedge fund is an investment vehicle that uses mostly borrowed money and invests on behalf of wealthy clients.
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