Former hedge fund CFO barred, ordered to pay $227,500 penalty

The Securities and Exchange Commission has barred Perry Gruss over his role as chief financial officer at D.B. Zwirn & Co., a once high-flying hedge fund that ceased operations in 2009. In the related civil case, a New York judge has imposed a penalty of $227,500 against him. In its complaint filed in 2011, the SEC alleged that Mr. Gruss aided and abetted Zwirn's improper transfers of monies between its privately managed client funds, including transfers of $576 million to fund the firm's own investments, and transfers of $273 million to allow the same client fund to repay the firm's revolving credit facility. Mr. Gruss has the right to apply for reentry after three years to the appropriate self-regulatory organization or to the commission, the SEC said in its administrative proceeding order.