Five Hedge Fund Firms In French Knot

London-based GLG Partners is finding itself in the sights of French regulators, but it's not alone. After coming under investigation in the U.K., GLG now is the target of the Autorite des Marches Financers, but this time GLG's Philippe Jabre is not the main character; it's a fund run by Pierre LaGrange, a firm co-founder, who, according to The Wall Street Journal, is not likely to face charges as an individual. In fact, the paper says the regulator is just after hedge fund groups, not people. Taking center stage is the GLG European Long-Short Fund, which the AMF wants to clarify whether somehow it benefited from non-public inside information involving convertible-bond transactions from telecom Alcatel and entertainment company Vivendi Universal. The AMF, according to the WSJ, is also planning on questioning four other hedge funds that allegedly may have reaped similar benefits from the inside information: O'Connor ( a unit of UBS), Meditor Capital Management, Ferox Capital Management and Marshall Wace Asset Management. Those firms declined to comment to The WSJ.