Concord Management’s promise of checks worth $100 million saw more than 100 private equity firms and hedge funds jump at the offer. Most of the $6 billion funds owned by Concord belong to Roman Abramovich, who was earlier sanctioned by the U.K and European Union for being close to Russian President Putin.
More on the stuck fund
As per Bloomberg News, these firms are stuck as their clients ask questions, and they can neither get rid of the tainted funds nor collect fees on it either.
Many funds with Abramovich’s money have offshore entities. Cayman Island laws cannot redeem Abramovich’s stake, sell his shares to another investor or accept new funds from him. The firms can only manage the funds, and if they own money to the Oligarch after the sale of an asset, they have to go to a blocked account. The firms can charge fees but cannot collect them.
The U.S. has not sanctioned Abramovich, who was suspected of being poisoned after a peace talks meeting in Kyiv.
Concord Management was founded in 1999 by Michael Matlin, who used to steer funds to well-known and biggest funds. Over the past two decades, Millennium Management, Brevan Howard Asset Management, Carlyle Group Inc., Apollo Global Management Inc., Sculptor Capital Management Inc., Saprissa many other smaller firms, including Ratan Capital Management and Sarissa Capital Management, have counted on the Matlin, the New York Based Manager as their client. Some relationships are not active anymore, as per people familiar with Concord.
Clients are checking out with money managers with whom they invest in finding out if they have funds sourced from the Russian Billionaire sanctioned money. The firms have defended, saying that portion of the money is only a tiny percentage of the total assets.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, few hedge fund investors got inquiries from Russians who wanted to sell their partnership stakes worth $50 million to $100 million. It is not clear whether those transactions have been completed. However, a few firms like Eisler Capital and Kirkoswald Asset Management removed the Russian investors before the sanctions.
Matlin, 58 firm does not have any website, nor does he have a LinkedIn profile. He has kept a low profile despite billions of funds routed through Concord. According to Matlin, Concord is a consulting firm that offers third-party independent research, monitoring, and due diligence of investments.
Concord had invested in Carlyle’s European real estate funds before the financial crisis. Matlin was on the partner advisory board of two funds before they disbanded.
A Carlyle representative refused to comment on the same.
Abramovich has a net worth of $13.7 billion as per the Bloomberg Billionaire Index; he made his vast fortunes from the sale of private assets acquired from the former Soviet Union, including Aeroflot and oil giants Sibneft.
