Pentagon Hedge Fund

Who would have thought that the Pentagon had a hedge fund? Just think how well it would perform with advanced knowledge of military operations.

Okay Mr. President, you want us to go after Iran? Sure thing. Hey Joe go buy 1 million futures contracts on oil before news of the strike hits the wires.

Okay, okay the Pentagon doesn’t really run a hedge fund. But Pentagon Capital Management is on the hook for a cool $100 million. It looks like it was fined for improper mutual fund trading.

According to the Telegraph:

Pentagon Capital Management, which was run by Lewis Chester, a contemporary of David Cameron at Oxford University, was ordered in February by US District Judge Robert Sweet to pay $76.8m after the fund was found to have engaged in late trading in mutual funds between 1999 and 2003.

That amount was increased by $21.7m in “pre-judgment interest”, according to a court ruling by Judge Sweet last week.

The Securities Exchange Commission issued charges against Pentagon in 2008 after the regulator embarked on a crackdown on the abuse of trading in mutual fund shares.

How in the world did Pentagon choose the name of their firm? Didn’t they stop to think that it might cause simple minded bloggers like me to confuse it with one of the largest military organizations in the world?