Toomre Capital Markets LLC ("TCM") has previously written about the hedge fund con artist Kirk S. Wright and his now-defunct Atlanta-based hedge fund management firm International Management Associates. (Interested readers might want to review the TCM posts entitled Update on Kirk Wright and IMA hedge fund fraud scandal or Kirk Wright, IMA Hedge Fund Manager, Arrested in Miami Beach.)

According to The International Herald Tribune, on Wednesday May 21^st 2008, this con artist was convicted in Atlanta Federal court of many fraud counts that effectively would lead to spending the rest of his life in Federal prison upon sentencing. From the article,

According to authorities, Wright and his company collected more than $150 million spread across thousands of client accounts since 1997 and used false statements and documents to mislead some of them to believe the value of those investments was increasing. Much of that money is missing.

Prosecutors said Wright had been lying to his investors since at least 2001 about their investments' performance and the balances in their accounts. He reported substantial investment gains almost every month; the evidence revealed that he lost almost every dollar invested in the market, prosecutors said.

They said he diverted millions of dollars of investor's money for personal expenses, including cash for himself and family members, jewelry, house renovations, a $500,000 wedding, up to six luxury vehicles, and multiple pieces of real estate, mainly in Atlanta and California….

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta, Wright could receive a maximum sentence of 710 years in prison, a fine of up to $16 million and be ordered to pay restitution to the victims. He already has been hit with a $20 million judgment as part of a civil suit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Sentencing is set for Aug. 26.

On February 12th 2007, Bloomberg is reporting that the former head of hedge fund International Management Associates, Kirk S. Wright, has been ordered to pay almost $20 million in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As reflected in this SEC statement, a U.S. District Court judge in Atlanta has ordered Wright to forfeit $19.8 million and pay a $120,000 fine. "The SEC, in the suit filed last year, alleged that Wright falsified statements about the amount of his firm's assets and inflated the rates of return for the seven hedge funds under his management. Clients, including some NFL players, also sued Wright last year after they couldn't retrieve money from their accounts."

The Wall Street Journal reports on Wednesday, May 17 2006 that Kirk S. Wright, the former head of International Management Associates, a hedge fund which appears to be missing more than $100 million in investor funds, was arrested in Miami Beach after being on the lam for more than six weeks. The story states:

Kirk S. Wright, founder and CEO of International Management Associates LLC, was apprehended at a Miami hotel after authorities received "numerous leads from across the country," said Stephen Emmett, a spokesman in the FBI's Atlanta office. Mr. Wright, 35 years old, was charged with criminal mail fraud in Atlanta in late March. Mr. Wright's investors, including several former professional football players, invested more than $110 million in the firm's funds since Mr. Wright started the firm in 1996. To date, authorities and creditors have located less than $200,000.

A Feb. 17 story in The Wall Street Journal detailed several investors' inability to withdraw their money from the firm's funds. State and federal regulators subsequently stepped up investigations into the firm. According to one person familiar with Mr. Wright's arrest Wednesday, he was apprehended with more than $28,000 in cash, and a Mercedes vehicle. Mr. Emmett, the FBI spokesman, said he wasn't immediately able to confirm these details. At the time of his arrest, Mr. Wright's wife was also present, according to people familiar with the matter.

Late on Wednesday March 29, 2006, MarketWatch published another story about Kirk Wright and his failed International Management Associates hedge fund management firm. In this story, it is revealed that the Department of Justice unsealed a March 10 criminal complaint against Wright. This now means that his arrest is being sought by both the State of Georgia and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "The complaint alleges a fraud involving $150 million to $180 million in missing investor assets managed by Wright's funds, International Management Associates and International Management Associates Advisory Group, said U.S. Attorney David Nahmias in a statement." The federal complaint charges mail fraud, executed by mailing a set of false asset statements to IMA investor Stephen Atwater. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on conviction.

The Press & Sun-Bulletin of Greater Binghamton New York has published a story entitled BU graduate in hiding after taking money and running that has further information on Kirk Wright and his International Management Associates hedge fund. The article written by Jeff Platsky starts:

Here's a Binghamton University alumnus who won't be listed with Tony Kornheiser, Paul Reiser, Billy Baldwin or Camille Paglia as distinguished graduates. You won't read about him in the university's Alumni News or its weekly newspaper. But you can read about him on the front page of last Thursday's Wall Street Journal. And you can be sure the university won't ask for publication rights to the story. That's because this graduate is accused of bilking investors of up to $185 million in an Atlanta-based hedge fund.