Odey Asset Management suspends further funds after investor flight

LONDON, June 16 (Reuters) – Odey Asset Management has suspended further funds after increased investor redemptions, letters posted on the fund’s website showed.

The hedge fund, once run by one of Britain’s best known star managers, Crispin Odey, has grappled with investor flight after the founder became the focus of sexual misconduct allegations in media reports last week.

The Financial Times and Tortoise Media, in a joint publication on June 8, reported allegations by 13 women that Odey – one of Britain’s best-known hedge fund managers – had sexually assaulted or harassed them over a 25-year period.

The firm suspended trading in the Odey Special Situations and LF Odey Portfolio funds, after investors sought redemptions, two letters dated June 15 on the firm’s website said.

A spokesperson for OAM on Friday declined to comment on the suspended funds.

Odey last week told Reuters that the report was a “rehash of an old article and none of the allegations have been stood up in a courtroom or an investigation.” Odey has since declined calls and messages.

Within hours of that report being published, Wall Street firms including Goldman Sachs (GS.N), JPMorgan (JPM.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) began reviewing financing ties with Odey Asset Management (OAM), which they then went on to cut.

OAM is now breaking up its funds and employees are moving to rivals following the allegations.

Bloomberg first reported the news.