A little irony, anyone? Ex-Enron Exec Starts Energy Hedge Fund

Investor memories must be shorter than short. Jeff Shankman, the former chief operating officer of global markets at Enron Corp., (home of the second largest bankruptcy in U.S. history) plans to raise as much as $250 million in the next six months for an energy hedge fund, according to two investors who received marketing documents on the proposal.

Trident Asset Management LLC, based in Houston, was founded this year by Shankman and Andy Weathers, a former trader at CenterPoint Energy Inc., and will start trading this month, said the investors, who declined to be identified because details are still confidential. Shankman didn't return messages left requesting comment. Weathers declined to comment.

A four-year rally in prices for raw materials has spurred investment in commodity-trading hedge funds. They oversee $22.5 billion globally, up from $12 billion a year ago, according to London-based NewFinance Capital LLP, which invests in such funds. Trident's Cayman Islands-registered fund will trade U.S. natural gas, crude and refined oil, according to the investors.

Shankman, 39, headed trading in markets from commodities to foreign exchange and equities at Enron, the world's largest energy-trading company before it went bankrupt (doh!) in 2001. He then started Monotech International Inc., a Texas-based building- construction company