Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Sues Ex-Employees Over New Fund

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2014/10/22/billionaire-ray-dali…

“According to the 19-page complaint Bridgewater filed in federal court in Manhattan, neither Wang nor Wu had any responsibility for managing or overseeing any Bridgewater funds, portfolios or investment strategies and they were never promoted above their entry-level positions at the firm. Wang “was never asked or permitted to in any way manage or oversee any Bridgewater fund,” Bridgewater claims. “Nor did he ever make any investment decisions for Bridgewater.” In a brief interview, Wang said he has not misrepresented his role at the massive hedge fund firm. “Bridgewater in general has a pretty long history of going after its employees, we didn’t think they would go after us in this case but apparently they are,” Wang said.

Bridgewater says that Wang joined Bridgewater in 2008 as an entry-level junior analyst in the client services department that is responsible for managing the hedge fund’s relationships with clients. Wang left in 2012 and Bridgewater says he told the hedge fund “that he intended to pursue ballroom dancing ‘full time as a competitor.’” Wu joined Bridgewater’s internal finance department in 2007 as a software developer, coding software that calculated Bridgewater’s fees. Wu was later transferred to the core tech department at the hedge fund and dealt with discrete coding projects until he left the hedge fund firm in 2010, telling Bridgewater that he was unemployed and traveling, the hedge fund claims.”

I remember there was topic here discussing this so called Convoy fund's "industry changing" move after a bloomberg article emphasized "Convoy would only charge investors a discounted management fee and would not charge a performance fee"

What's your thought on this? Are these two young men busted?

 
Best Response

It's really a lose-lose situation for Wu Wang Clan. If they had not played up their Bridgewater experience, they would've not gotten anywhere near the degree of publicity they've received. But since they did (and clearly misrepresented their roles at the firm), it's Bridgewater's obligation to defend their and the industry's reputation. Having their brand tied to the inevitable underperformance of these guys is a non-starter. I'm siding with the hedge fund on this.

 
youayou:
Wang “was never asked or permitted to in any way manage or oversee any Bridgewater fund,” Bridgewater claims. “Nor did he ever make any investment decisions for Bridgewater.”

to be fair...from the posts you see on this forum/online, it sounds like no one (strictly speaking) actually "manages" or "oversees" Bridgewater funds or "makes investment decisions for Bridgewater" aside from Dalio and however many wise men he has at the top (i believe they call them co-CIOs - lost track of how many there are now). so this rebuttal from Bridgewater could really be made about any non-CIO employee, no?

 

A good reminder to look at the non-compete clause. Stringent non-competes can be a real career killer. Especially if they're broad and 2 years long.

In 2013, Bridgewater claims it approved Wang’s request to modify his non-compete agreement with the hedge fund so he could start a small business to manage the savings of friends and family and subsidize his ballroom dancing, but the hedge fund says it was led to believe that Wang would not mimic Bridgewater’s key All Weather fund’s framework.
 

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