JPMorgan Targeted in Pension Fund Suit against Hedge Fund

According to Bloomberg, the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System said in its complaint that Highland co-founders James Dondero and Mark Okada caused the Crusader Fund to engage in “dozens of self-interested transactions” with Highland affiliates designed to benefit the firm at the fund’s expense. The pension plan, which invested $15 million in the fund, is seeking unspecified losses caused by the alleged wrongdoing.  

The Crusader Fund “was harmed by virtue of being stuck with poor quality assets that it would not have had if the partnership had been managed in the best interests of the partnership and its limited partners,” the complaint says.   

Bloomberg reports that Highland, founded by Dondero and Okada in Dallas in 1993, announced plans in October 2008 to shutter its flagship Crusader Fund and the Highland Credit Strategies Fund over a three-year period after suffering losses on high-yield, high-risk loans and other types of debt. Since then, the firm and two JPMorgan units that administered the funds have been sued over claims of fraudulently misleading investors about the health of the funds and failing to provide accurate monthly statements.   

“We are extremely disappointed by the action filed today by a single law firm in the Delaware Court, which is an attempt to derail the continued hard work of over 100 investors,” Armel Leslie, a Highland Capital spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg. “As highlighted by the recently announced agreement among investors in the Highland Credit Strategies hedge fund, we are confident that an equitable solution that benefits all Crusader investors will be reached.”  

Highland announced in April that it had won approval from a court in Bermuda to distribute assets of the Highland Credit Strategies fund.

A JPMorgan spokesperson had no immediate comment regarding the complaint.