No extradition for hedge fund fugitive

Runaway hedge fund manager Michael Berger, whose U.S. fund lost $400 million, was caught in Austria last week, according to published reports. As an Austrian national, Mr. Berger cannot be extradited to the United States, where he would face up to 10 years in jail and fines of at least $1.25 million plus restitution. Mr. Berger, who bet the on Internet bubble in the late 1990s, pleaded guilty to charges of securities fraud in a New York court in 2000 then became a fugitive in March 2002, according to a Reuters report. Mr. Berger, 35, launched his Manhattan Investment Fund hedge fund in 1996, which suffered large losses when he bet against technology and Internet stocks between 1996 and 1999 as their prices were skyrocketing. His fund fell flat in January 2000, two months before the Internet bubble burst in March 2000. Mr. Berger raised over $575 million from investors in the 1990s by overstating the performance and market value of the hedge fund's holdings, prosecutors have said in proceedings against Mr. Berger from 2000, according to published reports. He admitted in his guilty plea that sent out misleading statements to investors in his fund between 1996 and 2000 when the market turned against him.