Frederick S. Mates

Frederick S. Mates - founder in August 1967 of the Mates Investment Fund, a high-flying mutual fund that later crashed in the bear market of 1970. Mates got into trouble over the practice --which was routine in the 1960s -- of accounting for so-called "letter stock" (non-tradable stock) at a price different from what was paid for it. As a result, when confidence was lost in the Mates mutual fund and investors wanted out, redemptions had to be suspended for a while, which the S.E.C. condoned.

The Mates Investment Fund was ahead of its time in one respect: it ostensibly promoted "Socially Responsible" mutual funds (not investing in armaments, cigarettes, or pollutants), which later was successfully promoted by the Calvert family of mutual funds.