Crispin Odey fights to retain top clients after sex scandal: Hedge fund manager under fire after allegations
Founder: Crispin Odey
The head of the firm founded by Crispin Odey is battling to keep clients on-side as the hedge fund manager is embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal.
Peter Martin, chief executive of Odey Asset Management, said he was ‘confident that our service providers will continue to work with us to ensure that the interests of investors are protected’.
Some of the world’s biggest banks are distancing themselves from the fund following misconduct allegations against Odey.
French brokerage Exane, part of BNP Paribas, was said to have cut ties with the fund while Morgan Stanley has also severed links.
JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs are reviewing their relationship as prime brokers, entities that provide hedge funds with credit. And Schroders has sold its last remaining investments.
The fund faces a probe by the Financial Conduct Authority into ‘non-financial misconduct’. The regulator was investigating governance issues after Odey fired his executive committee in 2021 when it tried to discipline him after a warning not to behave inappropriately with female staff.
That probe may be widened to include new allegations in the Financial Times made against the financier by 13 women.
Odey, 64, has ‘strenuously disputed’ claims and said none ‘have been stood up in a court room or an investigation’. Martin said the allegations’ were being ‘looked into’ by company lawyers and it took them ‘extremely seriously’.
Odey made his name betting against bank shares during the 2008 crisis. The FT said an internal probe concluded he behaved inappropriately with female staff.
