John Paulson, the hedge fund manager who made his name betting against the housing market during the financial crisis, has been proved fallible. According to an article on Bloomberg, John Paulson’s hedge fund Paulson & Co. made a very large, very public bet on Chinese lumber company Sino-Forest Corp. that has resulted in an estimated loss of $720 million.
Sino-Forest has been in hot water after accusations that it overstated its timber holdings, with Muddy Waters’s Carson Block making a public announcement that his firm was shorting the stock. The stock has lost 91% of its value since the announcement, which has been a major contributing factor in Paulson & Co’s June losses. It is estimated that the flagship Paulson Advantage Plus hedge fund has lost almost 13% since the beginning of June alone and 20% YTD. |
