The International Tropical Timber Organization, which was established by the United Nations to protect rain forests, is one of the biggest victims of an apparent fraudulent scheme involving hedge funds in the Cayman Islands, an investment manager in Barbados and factoring firms in New York.
A Cayman fund group set up by Barbados-based Canadian attorney Jeffrey Lipton has collapsed, putting US$89m of investors' funds at risk. Argyle Funds SPC, ARC (Euro) Fund, ARC (USD) Fund, and Ardent Harmony Fund went into liquidation apparently due to problems with loans of approximately $40m to NY-based factoring firm RMP Capital Corp.