Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Tremont Holdings Had $3.3 Billion With Madoff

Tremont Group Holdings Inc., a hedge-fund firm owned by OppenheimerFunds Inc., had $3.3 billion, or more than half its total assets, invested with Bernard Madoff, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Tremont’s Rye Investment Management unit had $3.1 billion, virtually all the money the group managed, allocated to Madoff, said the person, who declined to be identified because the information is private. Tremont had another $200 million, or about 7 percent of its total assets, invested through its fund of funds group, Tremont Capital Management.

Tremont, which manages a total of $5.8 billion, would have made roughly $62 million this year peddling funds that are solely run by Madoff, who was arrested Dec. 11 after he allegedly confessed to running a “giant Ponzi scheme” that may have bilked investors out of $50 billion. Hedge funds that invested with the 70-year-old Queens, New York-native charged fees to their clients for the task of vetting the fund.

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