Operational Due Diligence

Check Fund Manager conducted an investigative background check on this hedge fund:

Kinetics Advisers LLC is a legitimate business incorporated in New York in May of 2000. The company is located in Sleepy Hollow, NY at 16 New Broadway. Kinetics Asset Management Inc. also does business as Kinetics Holdings Corporation, incorporated in April of 1999, Kinetics Funds Distributor Inc., which formed in May of 1968, and Kinetics Asset Management Inc., which was incorporated in NY in March of 1996.

Kinetics Advisers LLC is registered with the SEC as an Investment Advisor, IARD/SEC# 139011, with $334,000,000 in total assets under management. A previous investigation completed in March of 2008 found the company was registered with $5,485,000,000 under management. The SEC Filing also lists Direct Owners and Executive Officers including Bruce Paul Abel as Director & Secretary, Patrick Lawrence Doyle as Shareholder, Peter Doyle as President, CEO, Director, & Chief Investment Strategist, Andrew Martin Fishman as Chief Compliance Officer, FRMO Inc. as Shareholder, and Leonid Polyakov, as Director & CFO, among others.

Kinetics Asset Management Inc. is also registered with the SEC as an Investment Advisor, IARD/CRD # 106204, with a reported $4,337,000,000 in total assets under management, down from a reported $14,685,000,000 in March of 2008. The SEC filing also lists Direct Owners and Executive Officers including Bruce Paul Abel as Director & Secretary, Patrick Lawrence Doyle as Shareholder, Peter Doyle as President, CEO, Director, & Chief Investment Strategist, Andrew Martin Fishman as Chief Compliance Officer & Assistant Secretary, and Leonid Polyakov, as Director & CFO, among others. Kinetics Funds Distributor Inc. is registered with the FINRA, CRD#780, but the company is not registered with the NFA under any name.

Fortress Investment Group LLC became incorporated in New York in February 2007. They became incorporated in Delaware in November 2006. They also do business as many other companies including Fortress Commodities Advisors, FIG Advisors LLC, Drawbridge Special Opportunities Advisors LLC, and Drawbridge Global Macro Advisors LLC. The first of these to be filed appears to have been Fortress Investment Fund LLC, filed in NY in November 1999, and FIG LLC, filed in NY in November 1998. Fortress Investment Group LLC, Fortress Credit Opportunities Advisors, Fortress Partners Advisors, Fortress Partners GP and Fortress Partners Offshore are among those registered with the NFA, including several Drawbridge filings. Fortress Investment Group LLC is a SEC-registered investment advisor. They report over $28 billion in AUM. Principals include Wesley Edens, Robert Kaufmann, Randal Nardone, Michael Cohn, Daniel Bass and David Brooks, as well as Michael Novogratz and Peter Briger. Fortress Fund IV GP LP, Fortress Fund MM ll LLC, Fortress Fund MM LLC, FIG Advisors LLC, and Drawbridge Long Dated Value Advisors LLC are also registered. Fortress Investment Group appears on the corporate filings of DB Dom, Fit Green Tree, and Newcastle Investment. Fortress Investment Group (UK) Ltd is based in London, incorporated since August 1998. Randal Nardone, Stephen Charlton, Robert Kauffman, Jonathan Ashley, Peter Briger and Wesley Edens are listed as officers.

Paulson & Co. Inc. is a legitimate business incorporated in New York in December of 1994 and in Delaware in November of 1994. The company is located in New York, NY. Paulson & Co. Inc. is an approved investment advisor registered with the SEC in February of 2004 with listed AUM in excess of $17 billion. In addition to Mr. Paulson as President, other principals in the company include: Christopher Bodak (CFO), Stuart Merzer (Sr. VP, CCO, & General Counsel), Andrew Hoine (Sr. VP, Dir. of Research) and Rufus Coes (COO). Paulson Management LLC is also an approved investment advisor registered with the SEC since January of 2006. The company reports assets under management at $17,679,707,000. The company also does business under the names Paulson Partners L.P. (registered in NY in 2001 and DE in 1994), Paulson Advisers LLC (registered in NY in 2006 and DE in 2001), Paulson Capital Inc. (registered in NY and DE in 2006), Paulson Credit Opportunities, L.P. (registered in NY and DE in 2006), and Paulson Management LLC (registered in NY in 2006 and DE in 2001). A FINRA registration was found for Plus Securities LLC, which lists the same address as Paulson & Co. Inc. Plus Securities LLC’s former FINRA record listed their mailing address as being in care of Paulson & Co. Inc. Paulson Management LLC, Paulson & Co. Inc, and Paulson Advisers LLC are all registered with the NFA.

Located on 40 Grosvenor Place in London, UK, BlueCrest Capital Management Limited was an SEC-approved investment advisor until 12/11/2008. At the time of their last filing with the SEC, BlueCrest reported over $12.8 billion in assets under management. Company principals include Michael Platt (CEO), William Reeves, Paul Dehadry, Andrew Dodd, and Charles Oliver, among others. BlueCrest Capital Management LLP remains registered with the SEC; they became an approved investment advisor in 11/2008. According to SEC records, BlueCrest Capital Management LLP has over $14.4 billion in assets under management. BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd. is registered with the NFA and the FSA.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management, LP is a company that is registered in the state of Delaware. The earliest record we found for the company was a Delaware incorporation filing from 1990. Twenty-one other state corporate registrations were found, most were foreign registrations referencing the Delaware filing. We found various name registrations including for example the names Goldman Sachs Asset Management CBO Corporation and Goldman Sachs Asset Management CBA II Corporation. Various addresses were found as well. In New York, 85 Broad Street was commonly referenced.