Investment fund loses value

The Orange County treasurer’s office has taken an $11-million write-down on the value of an $80-million investment in a complex fund, a decrease of nearly 14%, according to a county treasury report issued Tuesday.

The fund, a structured investment vehicle called Whistlejacket LLC, went into default in February and has been forced into receivership. County treasury officials said the lower pricing on the investment is a conservative estimate of what the securities would currently fetch on the market in a distress sale, but that they expect eventually to recover the full value of their investment, which is scheduled to mature in January.

The Whistlejacket investment was part of Treasurer Chriss Street’s expanded foray into structured investment vehicles, which have run into trouble on Wall Street in recent months as investors turned away from certain types of debt securities.