A 29-Year Old Russian Hedge Fund Founder Just Went Missing With All The Firm's Money
That's according to a stunning feature in the Wall Street Journal. Kim Karapetyan (29), the youthful founder of Blackfield Capital CJSC is has disappeared, much to the dismay of his staff, who didn't know until a group of men charged into their plush offices.
Here's the Wall Street Journal:
No attempts to contact or find Karapetyan were successful and he's still MIA. The company's website brags that its "systematic investment process helps avoid human-factor, cognitive-biases, and emotional-trading errors," but the CEO running away with all your money seems like a fairly big human error.
Karapetyan is a bit of a playboy: He flew early noughties boyband Blue into Russia for a company New Year's Eve performance in 2013, and paid $15,000 (£9,800) per month for a flat in New York's financial district, setting a record for per-square-foot rent in the area. He also instructed US employees of the fund to buy an Aston Martin Vanquish.
Since he went missing, the Wall Street Journal found some incredible inconsistencies in his career history too. He claimed to have worked at Morgan Stanley as a portfolio manager, and to have graduated with a master's degree from the London School of Economics. Neither institution has any record of him.
Apparently until recently Blackfield had rented out 18 offices on the 46th floor of 7 World Trade Centre in New York, with a view to expansions in the US. The firm also planned a London expansion, but unless he's hiding in a Kensington basement, it seems likely that the fund will be making that move any time soon.