Litigation Partner and Co-leader of the firm’s national White Collar Defense and Corporate Investigations group, John J. Carney’s efforts as the receiver of a failed international hedge fund manager was reported in a Dow Jones Newswire story (“Receiver In Ponzi Case Linked To Venezuela's PDVSA Sees Up To $350M In Recoveries”) on a multi-million Ponzi scheme tied to the workers' pension fund of Venezuela's state-owned oil company.
Carney estimated total recoveries in the range of $310 million to $350 million. He said in a court filing November 29 that the estimate was preliminary and included private equity, securities and other money that could be recovered for the estate of a Connecticut hedge fund and related funds that are at the heart of the case.
Francisco Illarramendi, former fund manager of Michael Kenwood Group LLC through which the Ponzi scheme allegedly took place, pleaded guilty in March in a related criminal case to several counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy. According to Dow Jones, “A second Connecticut hedge fund once associated with Illarramendi, Highview Point Partners LLC, is also part of the civil case.”
Carney said he has interviewed 22 witnesses, made 37 voluntary requests for documents, and issued over 220 document subpoenas since beginning his investigation. As of November 29, the investigators had sorted through more than 2.3 million documents.