Crispin Odey Fired From His Own Hedge Fund After Sexual Assault Allegations

Just two days after the Financial Times published a lengthy #MeToo style hit-piece on billionaire hedge fund manager Crispin Odey, the eponymously named Odey Asset Management removed Odey from the firm’s partnership, according to the FT and Bloomberg. 

“Mr Crispin Odey is leaving the partnership. As from today, he will no longer have any economic or personal involvement in the partnership,” Peter Martin, chief executive, and Michael Ede, chief financial and operating officer, wrote in a statement seen by the FT on Saturday.

They added that Odey Asset Management Group Limited, a holding company that is part of the group and majority owned by Odey, would also be removed as a member and that the partnership would now be owned and controlled by remaining partners.

Odey Asset Management – which we assume will now be renamed – also confirmed it “has been investigating allegations concerning Mr Odey” but said it could not comment in detail for confidentiality reasons. It said that “further communications” with clients would follow over the weekend. Reached by phone at lunchtime on Saturday, Odey confirmed he had been notified of the firm’s decision but suggested he would fight it. “You have to have [a] willing buyer, willing seller,” he said. He did not provide additional comment.

Odey, 64, has denied FT’s report that cites thirteen women “who have worked for Odey Asset Management or had social or professional dealings with Odey” and who claim that the billionaire hedge fund manager “abused or harassed them; eight alleged he sexually assaulted them.”

And just like every other #MeToo accusation, “nine of the women who spoke to the FT have never told their stories publicly before” because – drumroll – “most requested anonymity for fear of social, professional or financial retaliation.”

After FT published the hit-piece, Odey Asset Management instantly saw its prime-brokerage relationship with Morgan Stanley severed while JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reviewed their relationship with the hedge fund. Bloomberg noted some investors even pulled their money out of the hedge fund this past week. 

Maybe ultraliberal FT went after Odey because he has used his wealth and influence to boost the country’s Conservative party, back Brexit, and develop friendships with former prime minister Boris Johnson. FT may have an agenda far greater than what happens on the trading floor of a hedge fund.