8 Investor Protection Concerns in Private Investment Funds
This chapter examines the governance challenge in private investment funds arising from investor protection failures. It begins with a discussion of the Madoff affair, which brought to the fore alleged failures in reporting, oversight and governance mechanisms regarding private investment funds, whether hedge funds, private equity funds, real estate opportunities funds or other more esoteric investment pools. It then considers some issues which the Madoff debacle drew attention to, including the presence of multiple fund vehicles in the same structure or in interconnected structures such as parallel funds, master-feeder, and fund of funds. It also analyses the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) concerns about hedge fund fraud and conflicts of interest that may arise in the business models of any of the participants in the private equity market. Finally, it describes ongoing diligence and oversight regarding private investment funds and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) concerns over due diligence involving private funds.