Trio Charged in Hedge Fund Mismarking Probe Plead Not Guilty

(Bloomberg) -- Three former hedge fund employees accused of conspiring to inflate the value of their firm’s holdings pleaded not guilty as prosecutors laid out the evidence against them during an arraignment Friday.

Premium Point Investments LP co-founder Neil Ahuja, portfolio manager Amin Majidi and trader Jeremy Shor were charged this week with mismarking assets in order to make the holdings appear more attractive to potential investors and discourage current clients from withdrawing funds.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Griswold told U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla that the government has "voluminous" evidence against the three men, including more than one million individual records. Griswold said the evidence includes 18 recordings as well as text messages and communications made through the encrypted service WhatsApp. The "vast majority" of the evidence consists of documents the now-shuttered firm produced to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Griswold said.

Attorneys for the three men declined to comment after the hearing.

The case is U.S. v. Ahuja, 18-cr-328, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider

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