Investors May Oust Bear From B&C Hedge Funds

A law firm that represents shareholders who lost millions by investing in two subprime-related hedge funds managed by Bear Stearns & Co. is calling for a vote to replace Bear as the manager of what's left of the funds.A spokesman for the law firm of Reed Smith LLP said, "The two funds are worthless. The idea is to take over management of them and do a forensic accounting to see what happened. Bear's view is that it's not responsible for what happened and that shareholders are out of luck." The two funds -- one for U.S. investors, the other for overseas investors -- had an equity value of $650 million at one time. Bear Stearns could not be reached for comment at deadline time. Investors have already filed class-action lawsuits against Bear in regard to their losses. Reed Smith, though, is not a party to those suits. Bear Stearns can be found online at http://www.bearstearns.com.