How to avoid hedge fund fraud, from firsthand experience

`` Charles J. Gradante, a well-known New York-based advisor to investors in hedge funds, issued a public call Wednesday for the Securities and Exchange Commission to "reduce fraud and systemic risk" in the hedge fund industry. That sounded righteous enough. But about half an hour earlier, the SEC had charged Gradante with failure to perform due diligence before recommending that clients invest in the Bayou hedge funds -- one of the industry’s biggest scams of a few years back.''