When Bear Stearns Cos. Chief Executive James E. "Jimmy" Cayne let it slip to the New York Times that the failure of his firm's hedge funds was a "body blow of massive proportion," he may have been using a tactic honed by three decades of championship bridge. Yeah. Really.

Brian Hunter, whose bad bets triggered the collapse of hedge fund Amaranth Advisors, sought a temporary restraining order to block the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from bringing civil charges against him, even as that agency and another regulator readied cases against him and Amaranth.

FERC, which regulates the sale of physical natural gas, has been investigating trading activity at the failed hedge fund along with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the main futures-market regulator.

Mr. Hunter's legal action, filed Monday in federal district court in Washington, D.C., challenged FERC's "statutory authority" to bring an action. In it, he states that FERC informed him July 20 of a potential action alleging attempted market manipulation of natural-gas markets. He contends that FERC "is not statutorily authorized to regulate futures markets for energy commodities" and that this authority rests with the CFTC.

(Continue reading this story on Wall Street Journal)

Next article » Cayne’s Good Game?

Previous article « No Sale?