Hedge row erupts in East Hampton

It’s only the third week of June, but hedge fund gossip has headed to the Hamptons for the summer. The trouble began when Goldman Sachs managing director Mark Spilker hired a work crew to tear down the (actual) hedges on James Chanos’ East Hampton, N.Y. property in order to create a wider path to the beach. That prompted an angry note from Mr. Chanos, chief of hedge fund Kynikos Associates, Portfolio.com reported. “My outrage over this arbitrary and unilateral course of action is probably only exceeded by Mr./Mrs. Spilker’s sense of entitlement that the four-foot wide path to the beach (and specified in the local easement papers) ‘was just not wide enough for us’ as he said when first broaching the subject of arbitrarily widening a path that was in compliance with the local zoning.” Once the message was leaked, Mr. Spilker’s lawyer told Portfolio.com that his client made “repeated attempts” to discuss widening the path but that Mr. Chanos “has been unwilling to rationally discuss the situation.”