Les entreprises savent mieux gérer l'argent, qu'ils disent
How One of the World's Oldest Hedge Funds Went Bankrupt
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti [...] t-a-blowup
Later, as George Weiss was bidding staff goodbye in-person, he described the firm as a family. That’s not the way employees and creditors are likely to see things. While the firm’s rapid unwinding limited losses for fund investors, Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers’ collapse leaves some staff standing to lose more than $1 million in deferred compensation. Its biggest creditor is bracing for a fight over more than $100 million in unpaid debts.
Interviews with about two dozen people familiar with Weiss and court documents depict a collapse caused not by a disastrous trade, but rather years of high spending that the firm failed to rein in even as assets fell and performance faltered. George Weiss, 81, and Chief Investment Officer Jordi Visser, 57, ran the $2.3 billion firm with the glitz of larger multistrategy rivals, but without the discipline, the ruthlessness to cut losing traders or the ability to push more costs onto investors, according to the people and court filings.
That proved fatal when Weiss’s biggest creditor demanded payment, later accusing George Weiss of using the firm as his “personal piggy bank.” The firm’s last attempt to survive — a potential deal with multistrategy giant Millennium Management — ultimately fell through.
For years, executives racked up miles on the corporate jet and kept portfolio managers on the payroll even as they dragged down returns, all while clients pulled cash, according to people familiar and court documents. As George Weiss stepped back from the day-to-day, Visser continued building a personal brand through video series and podcasts and engaged in an office romance that other executives flagged as problematic.