Fraternity Fund Ltd. v. Beacon Hill Asset Management LLC

In Fraternity Fund Ltd. v. Beacon Hill Asset Management LLC, 376 F Supp 2d 385, 413-414 & n 182 [SD NY 2005], individual investors in hedge funds sued the limited liability companies issuing the funds and their principals, alleging, among other claims, that the defendants had breached their fiduciary duties to the investors. The court rejected the defendants' argument that the wrong belonged only to the corporation. It found that the wrong was a fraud committed on the shareholders rather than on the funds, in that defendants had fraudulently overstated the net asset value of the funds, concealing the declines in the fund assets, and the investors were injured when they invested or retained their investments in reliance upon the misstatements (id. at 409).