Moore Capital London Office Raided, At Least One Employee Arrested

Author:: Bess Levin
Updated:: Jan 14, 2019
Original:: Mar 23, 2010

The London-based hedge fund, Moore Capital, was one of the firms raided by the City watchdog the FSA, the BBC has learned. One person at Moore Capital and five other City workers are being held. Those arrested are suspected of taking part in a long-running insider-dealing scheme. The arrests came after 16 addresses were searched in a joint probe by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca). Documents and computers were seized from premises in London, the South East and Oxfordshire. It is the FSA's biggest operation against insider dealing.

Update: A suspect and statement from Moore, via the WSJ:

Among the suspects arrested Tuesday morning was Julian Rifat, a London-based execution trader for Moore Capital, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Rifat couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
In a statement Tuesday, Moore Capital, a prominent New York-based hedge fund with about $14 billion in assets under management, said U.K. authorities had executed a search warrant for documents related to an employee on its London equity-execution desk. Moore said the investigation doesn't involve any of the hedge fund's capital and that the firm "is cooperating fully with the FSA in its investigation."

Not happy! (Louis Bacon/Getty Images)

Brett Barna capped off his weekend with a firing.

Photo: Instagram

It's unclear if it will continue hosting the annual party next year.

Make millions, lose millions, who cares, what's the point of it all? Greg Coffey, co-chief investment officer of Moore Capital Management LLC’s European business, is leaving the hedge-fund industry after a 20-year trading career, according to a letter sent to investors...Assets in Coffey’s macro fund have slumped to about $100 million from as much as $1.6 billion in 2010. The fund had fallen about 10 percent this year through August before rebounding almost 9 percent last month, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named because the information is private. The fund lost 5 percent last year. Coffey realized that after he had recovered most of this year’s losses in one week in September, he wasn’t as excited about his gains as he might have been in the past, two people who know him said. Coffey then decided it was time to end his 20-year career trading, the people said. Moore Capital’s Coffey to Retire From Hedge-Fund Industry [Bloomberg]

One thing you may or may not know about hedge fund manager Louis Bacon is that he likes to keep his human interactions to a minimum. It's not a personal thing, just people in general thing. He doesn't like 'em and he doesn't want to talk to or look at 'em. For example, rather than taking five minutes to tell a subordinate he disagrees with a trade idea, Bacon has been known instead to "retreat to his office and place an opposing trade, a tactic known as 'fading' a colleague." Clients are treated similarly ("During meetings with...investors, Bacon, who often draws the blinds in his private office, frequently turns to his lieutenants to answer questions, often sitting silently through presentations") and if you thought that being, say the fruit of his loins meant special treatment, you were sorely mistaken ("One longtime assistant negotiates annual spending allowances with the elder of his children individually...Once they've agreed on the number, the assistant invites the child for a sit-down meeting with his or her father, during which Bacon usually signs off on the terms"). So it probably did not come as much of a surprise when LB hired his brother, the improbably named Zack Hampton Bacon III, to speak with a dozen or so members of the staff re: security waiting to escort them out of the building. Moore Capital Management LLC, the $15 billion hedge fund run by Louis Moore Bacon, cut 10 to 15 investment jobs as it restructures one of its equity teams, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The portfolio managers and research analysts were let go on Sept. 11, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Patrick Clifford, a spokesman for New York-based Moore, declined to comment. “Apart from a few hedge funds, it’s not that typical to see a large reduction in headcount in the industry,” said Ronen Schwartzman, founder of Ten Capital Advisors LLC, a New York- based firm that advises clients on investing in hedge funds. “Performance must be having an impact.” Bacon, 56, hired his older brother, Zack Hampton Bacon III, in February to oversee strategic planning, a person briefed on the matter said that month. Bacon told clients last month that he planned to return $2 billion, or about 25 percent of his main fund, to investors, saying it may be too big for him to generate returns in line with historic profits as “liquidity and opportunities have become more constrained.” On the bright side, no one was "sprayed in the face" with lead pellets, so not all bad. Moore Said to Reduce Positions Amid Equity Restructuring [Bloomberg] Related: Louis Bacon Has Better Things To Do Than Explain How Big An Idiot You Are