From today's Wall Street Journal, on the ex-managers of the Bear Stearns hedge funds who were arrested this morning.

The indictments of two former Bear Stearns Cos. hedge-fund managers are expected to cite a personal email sent from one to the other suggesting that the funds were headed for the rocks -- four days before they told investors there was little to worry about.

Fund manager Matthew Tannin emailed his more senior colleague Ralph Cioffi that he feared the market for complex bond securities in which they had invested was "toast." He suggested they discuss the possibility of shutting down the funds, according to the email, which was sent from Mr. Tannin's private account.

Four days after the Sunday-morning email, Mr. Tannin told fund investors on a conference call that he was "quite comfortable" with their holdings. Mr. Cioffi used similar language.

Do hedge fund managers owe investors the same duty of faith and candor that sell-side analysts owe smalltime stock investors? I don't know the answer. But generally the regulation of hedge funds is vastly different from the regulation of other investments. Hedge fund investors are wealthy and presumed to be able to fend for themselves in choppy waters. If what the Journal says is true, prosecutors are pursuing a line similar to that of Eliot Spitzer when he went after analysts for privately calling tech stocks junk -- even as they were promoting them to investors. But recommending WorldCom to little old ladies and potentially shading investment evaluations for hedge fund partners -- who knew well and truly what they were getting into -- are two different things.