It's Hard to Hide a 79% Loss, but Jacob Internet Is Trying

(JAMFX Quote)Jacob Internet fund's 79.1% decline in 2000 is one of the worst one-year performances in mutual fund history. But you would never know it from reading the fund's prospectus.

Ryan Jacob, the fund's manager, seems to be using every legal trick in the book to keep his fund's recent travails out of its prospectus and marketing brochure -- two important sources of information for prospective investors. The fact that Jacob can avoid mentioning that his portfolio lost nearly four-fifths of its value in one year shows how toothless reporting requirements can be.

One gimmick Jacob is employing is keeping a stale prospectus on his Web site. The online prospectus says the fund's performance table "will be available to track the Fund's performance once the Fund has been in operation for a full calendar year." The calendar year is more than two weeks passed, but the Web site prospectus still does not detail its abysmal performance in 2000. ...