FBI raids Texas REIT slammed by Kyle Bass as Ponzi scheme

Billionaire hedgie Kyle Bass — who profited immensely by correctly predicting the subprime mortgage crash — might have struck gold again.

FBI agents raided a Texas real estate investment trust on Thursday in the wake of an unusual public campaign by Bass that claimed the company is a Ponzi scheme.

The REIT, run by United Development Fund, has been accused by Bass of using complicated accounting maneuvers to plaster over its use of money from new investors to pay what it owes to old ones.

Bass, whose Hayman Capital has about $16 billion in assets, launched a Web site on Feb. 2 to lay out his case that the company is a “house of cards.”

News of the raid sent shares of the REIT plummeting 55 percent, to $3.20, an all-time low. Shares of the trust were trading as high as $17.20 on Dec. 9, before cratering 35 percent on news that Bass had made a large bet against the company.

The raid hadn’t concluded at presstime, and it’s not clear when it would wrap up, a source told The Post.

UDF Chief Executive Hollis Greenlaw had hit back at Bass, saying on Feb. 8 that “given this financial incentive, we believe [Bass] intends to continue disseminating misleading information.”

A Hayman spokesman declined to comment, saying it would be premature to comment on the raid.

A spokesperson for UDF didn’t return requests for comment.