U.S. charges Platinum Partners executives with $1 billion fraud

Mark Nordlicht, Platinum's founding partner and chief investment officer, was arrested at his New Rochelle, New York, as federal prosecutors in Brooklyn accused him and six others of participating in a pair of schemes to defraud investors.

... a 48-page indictment said since 2012, Nordlicht and four other defendants defrauded investors by overvaluing illiquid assets held by its flagship Platinum Partners Value Arbitrage Fund LP, mostly troubled energy-related investments.

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Prosecutors said David Levy, Platinum's co-chief investment officer, and Uri Landesman, the former president of the firm's signature fund, also participated in the scheme, which prosecutors said allowed Platinum to extract more than $100 million in fees.

Nordlicht, Levy and Jeffrey Shulse, former chief executive officer of Platinum's majority-owned Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations LLC [BLCELB.UL], also schemed to defraud bondholders of Black Elk, a now-defunct Texas energy company, out of $50 million, prosecutors said.

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Founded in 2003, Platinum until this year had more than $1.7 billion under management, with more than 600 investors, authorities said. Its Value Arbitrage fund reported average returns of more than 17 percent from its inception, according to prosecutors.

This year, a series of investigations tied to Platinum came to a head. The firm hired an independent monitor in July to unwind its funds, and a Cayman Islands court in August placed its main offshore funds into liquidation.

Those moves came after the June arrest of Murray Huberfeld, a longtime Platinum associate, on charges in Manhattan federal court that he orchestrated a bribe to the head of the New York City prison guards' union, Norman Seabrook, to secure a $20 million investment with the firm.