If Citi's Ex-Hedge Fund Chief Had To Do It All Over Again He'd Still Invest Like No One Was Watching
Reaz Islam, who ran Citigroup hedge funds that lost most of their value in 2008, has “no regrets” about his performance and said “ambulance-chasing” lawyers are behind claims that he and the bank misled clients...The funds, now defunct, placed Citigroup at the center of a regulatory probe and a wave of litigation when they crashed four years ago. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, has ordered the bank to pay at least $60 million to some of the funds’ investors, who said that Citigroup pitched them a safe, more profitable alternative to other fixed-income investments. There are 69 claims remaining, according to Philip Aidikoff, a lawyer for plaintiffs. “This was a high-volatility, high-return strategy and never a safe and riskless investment as claimed by a few rogue, ambulance-chasing attorneys,” Islam said in an e-mail. “I have no regrets and obviously learned a lot from the crisis, notably to expect the unexpected at all times and how people change color in times of crisis.” [Bloomberg]
