State Busts Busted Hedge Fund

OKLAHOMA CITY (CN) - Phidippides Capital Management snookered 60 investors in a $34 million hedge fund, and its boss Mark S. Trimble skimmed more than $1 million from it, while losing "all the profits for the year and then some," the Oklahoma Department of Securities says.

The 4-year operation ended in January, when Trimble admitted his dishonesty in an email addressed "To Family, Friends and Clients," where he stated, "I could not look myself in the mirror and face all of you and notify you that in the last quarter of 2008 we lost all the profits for the year and then some," according to the complaint in Oklahoma County Court.

The state says Trimble sold unregistered securities, reported false profits, commingled funds, paid himself fees based on the false profits.

Trimble, of Edmond, Okla., started out investing in stocks and then switched to futures. In 2008, he offered partnership interests in the Phidippides Fund, in which the "intention appears to have been to convert the pool interests into the Phidippides Fund interests," the state says.

The suit comes on the heels of a federal action brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which froze millions of dollars in assets, some of which has been returned to investors.

The commission wants Trimble and his companies enjoined from doing business in Oklahoma, and relief under the Oklahoma Uniform Securities Act.

Pheidippides was the runner who is said to have made the long run from Marathon to Athens to bring news of Athens' victory over Persia in 490 B.C. Pheidippides is said to have uttered a conjugated form of the word "Nike" - Victory - and then died.

Most tellings of the story neglect to mention that it was not the 24-mile run that killed him, but the 200 or more miles he had run in the days before the battle.

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit