Bermuda-based hedge fund administrator Olympia Capital yesterday strongly rebuked a Reuters media report linking it to an investigation of one of its clients, Canary Investment Management.

Legal counsel for Olympia, Carolynn Hiron, told The Royal Gazette that the Reuters report wrongly implied that the company had any connection to the actions taken against Canary: "Olympia has not been investigated and has not been contacted by any regulators," she said.

In a Press statement, Olympia again took objection to reports, citing them as "erroneous" and underscored that allegations made against Canary had nothing to do with Olympia: "In response to erroneous reports that have recently appeared in the media, Olympia Capital International Inc. said that allegations that have been made against Canary Investment Management, LLC have nothing to do with Olympia Capital, the fund's administrator, but solely with Canary Investment Management LLC, the investment manager acting on a fully discretionary basis."

The statement added: "All trading undertaken by Canary was completely outside the scope of any services provided by Olympia Capital.

Olympia Capital has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the Canary case."

According to the Reuters report, Canary last week agreed to pay out $40 million to settle charges that it had broken securities laws by trading mutual fund shares after hours.

Meanwhile, Olympia said that it would continue to act as Canary's administrator.

The Reuters report also cited allegations against Olympia made by American real estate executive Thomas Donovan.

Yesterday, however, Olympia underscored that the investigation of Canary by regulators and law enforcement, and the suit filed by Mr. Donovan were two distinct matters that should never have, in its opinion, been reported in the same article.

Mr. Donovan is reportedly claiming some $100 million in damages against Canary, Olympia and its founder and chairman Oscar Lenowski.

In its Press statement, Olympia said: "Regarding a separate matter wholly unrelated to the Canary allegations, (Olympia) considers the counter-lawsuit filed by the Donovan enterprises to be completely frivolous. A recent report published by Reuters sought to establish a connection between these two matters."

But Olympia said the real fact of the matter was that its client had already been successful in litigation against Mr. Donovan, and that this was a counter suit following that judgment award: "The facts underlying Donovan's false allegations have previously been considered in litigation that resulted in a $21 million judgment against the Donovan enterprises and in favour of Olympia Capital's client. Mr. Donovan's claims were considered and dismissed by the court in reaching its judgment against the Donovan enterprises.

"Olympia Capital considers the new countersuit to be spurious litigation by a losing party seeking to avoid the substantial judgment properly rendered against it."

The Reuters reports also claimed that Ms Hiron and Mr. Lenowski had declined to make comment in its reports but yesterday the company rebutted that statement: "Olympia did not fail to return calls to Reuters except for the reasons of travel and hurricane" adding that Mr. Lenowski had been unavoidably out of contact because of Hurricane Fabian: "Mr. Lenowski was in Bermuda but, due to the hurricane, was unable to be reached - like virtually anyone else in Bermuda at that time," it said.

Olympia Capital International Inc., was founded in 1990, and is an independent administrators of hedge funds with 350 funds under administration and over $31 billion in assets worldwide.