Hungary's financial supervisory watchdog announced Friday it had slapped a 1.6-million-euro fine on an investment fund founded by US billionaire George Soros, for manipulating the market. The PSzAF said it had fined Soros Fund Management LLC for transactions on the Budapest stock exchange on October 9 that led to a "significant loss in value" of Hungarian OTP bank stocks, which fell in days from 4,000 forint (13.2 euros, 17.86 dollars) to 2,500 forint. The PSzAF "is imposing a 489-million-forint fine on Soros Fund Management LLC... for violating the rules regarding the illegal manipulation of financial markets," the supervisory authority said in a statement on its Internet site. The Soros Fund has 30 days to pay this record fine. The PSzAF said the fund started putting OTP shares up for sale at 4:27 pm on October 9, just minutes before closing. "The timing, the number and the effects of these transactions on the market point without any doubt to a an illegal market manipulation," it added. OTP, Hungary's biggest bank, was already hit hard by the financial crisis, like many other banks, but then saw its share value crumble in a few days after October 9. In a statement Friday, Hungarian-born Soros responded he had been informed of the fine but insisted that he was not involved in the transactions. "I no longer control the Soros Fund Management's operations, I retired last year and now only oversee the transactions to do with my private account," he said in the statement, published by Hungarian news agency MTI. "Soros Fund Management is cooperating with the Hungarian authorities and has also launched an internal investigation" into the illegal transactions, he noted. He added he was "deeply sorry the Soros Fund Management had carried out such a transaction."Record fine for Soros Fund over Hungarian transactions
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Monday, 13 April 2009
Agence France-Presse -
From Agence France-Presse:
3/27/2009 10:43 AM GMT
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