Odey Asset Management is closing down, five months after allegations of sexual misconduct made by junior female members of staff against its founder Crispin Odey threw the hedge fund into turmoil.
The business said on its website: “Odey Asset Management [OAM], including Brook Asset Management and Odey Wealth, will be closing. Fund managers and funds have moved to new asset managers.”
Earlier this month, the investment group, founded by the multimillionaire Conservative party donor 32 years ago, said its wealth management arm would be wound down.
In June, the Financial Times reported that 13 women had accused Odey of abuse or harassment over decades. Odey has denied misconduct.
OAM ousted Odey, and removed his name from the business, in the hope that this would stem unrest among investors and financial partners. However, it later announced it would be broken up as investors started to withdraw their funds. Several influential financial institutions, including Schroders and Canada Life, cut their ties with the group shortly after the allegations were revealed.
The FT said that after its initial investigation seven other women approached it with allegations of sexual misconduct, bringing the total number to 20, of whom 12 were former employees of the business.
At its peak several years ago, OAM had $13.3bn (£11bn) assets under management, which had fallen to $3.8bn last year.
Senior executives at the business were accused of knowing about some of the sexual misconduct allegations for up to 16 years before the company launched a formal investigation into Odey’s conduct.
The OAM chief executive, Peter Martin, said in June that “OAM treats, now and in the past, all such allegations extremely seriously” and it did “not recognise the picture of the firm that has been painted by the Financial Times”.
Odey is under investigation by Britain’s financial watchdog, which revealed in June that it was assessing whether he should be allowed to continue working in the financial services industry. The Financial Conduct Authority is also determining whether the multimillionaire failed to comply with the conduct rules “relating to integrity and acting with due skill, care and diligence”.
The hedge fund boss has supported the Conservative party, making political donations of more than £1.7m between 2007 and 2019. The Brexiter made hundreds of millions of pounds betting against sterling after Britain’s vote to leave the EU in 2016.
