The Securities and Exchange Commission will widen the computer-powered scrutiny from just covering hedge funds to include mutual funds and private equity funds, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The SEC database is already (or soon may be) encoding data of more than 20,000 funds on its computers, according to the paper. Those funds cover all types from private equity funds to mutual funds.

The Wall Street cop's expansion of the search was encouraged by the positive results of the computer-powered system they developed in 2009 to analyze hedge funds' monthly returns in a hunt for suspicious returns following the Madoff scandal.

The SEC did not disclose how the system works or how much it cost the government to built it but they announced four civil-fraud lawsuits which resulted from the system's "aberrational performance initiative."  

Edited by: HFD


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