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29-Year-Old Russian Hedge Fund CEO "Just Disappeared" With $20 Million
Blackfield Capital CJSC was one of Moscow’s hottest hedge funds, hosting glitzy parties and embarking on ambitious plans to expand to the U.S. The firm’s founder in 2013 even rented a Manhattan apartment for a record-setting price, and bought a $300,000 sports car; but now, as WSJ reports, 29-year-old Kim Karapetyan "just disappeared" leaving the staff of 50 stunned and making off with some $20 million in investor cash...
It was quite a ride!!!
As The Wall Street Journal reports,
The firm’s employees didn’t know anything was amiss until mid-October, when three men charged into Blackfield’s offices in an upscale complex along the Moscow River in central Moscow, said people who were there.
The men, who didn’t identify themselves, said they were looking for Blackfield’s 29-year-old founder, Kim Karapetyan, according to the people who were there.
But Mr. Karapetyan wasn’t in the office that day or the next, when senior executives explained to the staff of about 50 that there was no longer any money to pay their salaries, said one former senior executive and ex-employees. The executives disclosed that all the money in the company accounts—some $20 million, including investor cash—was also missing, they said. It couldn’t be determined whether investors were from Russia or other countries.
“Our CEO just…disappeared,” said Sergey Grebenkin, one of the firm’s software developers, in an interview.
The first signs of trouble came in the spring of 2014 soon after the conflict in Ukraine escalated, leading to a raft of international sanctions against Russian businesses and individuals.
Not long after that, Blackfield’s U.S. entity ended its lease and laid off all its staff. The employees were told the shutdown came primarily because of a lack of financing related to “the economic slowdown in Russia,” according to a former employee, who heard from staffers in Moscow that several big investors had withdrawn funds.
Then in October, Mr. Karapetyan stopped showing up at the firm’s Moscow offices, as did brothers Henry and Haik Mkhitaryan, according to former employees. Henry Mkhitaryan was Blackfield’s chief operating officer and Haik was a senior employee. The Mkhitaryan brothers didn’t respond to a request for comment.
...
Efforts to reach Mr. Karapetyan by phone, email and through associates and friends weren’t successful. Other senior executives didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Almost every trace of Mr. Karapetyan vanished from the Internet. His LinkedIn and Facebook accounts were deleted. Gmail bounced back emails to an account he had used only days before, saying it no longer existed. His cellphone number was disconnected.
For Blackfield’s Moscow employees, the events of October came with no warning... “I left at 5 p.m. without money or a job,” Mr. Krivopustov said. “We haven’t heard anything since.”
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"Garret Filler, former general counsel and chief compliance officer of U.S.-based Blackfield Capital LLC, declined to comment."
* * *
Want to know more and get your money back? Ask the General Counsel Garret Filler directly - who quietly hides the fact that he worked for Blackfield on his LinkenIn page...
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A N D ... it's gone!
LMFAO!!
BUWHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kim Karapetyan disappeared between the cheeks of Kim Kardashian.
To ponzi or not to ponzi ......... that is the question
It's all fun and games until someone breaks out the nail gun
He won't get far for very long...especially on just 20 million. They'll find him and nail-gun his ass to the wall...or probably much, much worse...
Just like they did to Madoff...and Corzine?
How far can someone run with $20 million? That shit is heavy!
Why do you think he got away with $20Million? Russain mobsters don't play. They catch you and tell you that you have two choices:
1. Die easy
2. Die hard
Could've have found him & cut off one of his balls for warm up and told him the next one was coming off if he didn't release all funds to the ASAP.
In Russia, you do not disappear money, money disappears you!
Russians gonna rush.
This could not have been done on an impulse. He must have had help and knew someplace to stash the money, which probably has changed hands/accounts several times over by now. He is not in the clique so it's only a matter of time before he is found. He will be very lucky if he lives to tell the tale.
Beware of the man behind you with an umbrella, Mr. Karapetyan.
Just another young man Trainspotting.
Ah, youth.
Especially if he has Russian clients
20 million can bring you a long way in Azia.
First you visit a plastic surgeon in Turkey to change your face, than you go to india and find a bum who is willing to sell you his life on paper and die to pay down the family debt.
And within 2 weeks, you’re a Indian rich guy between 1.5 billion other Indians who don’t really have a bureaucratic engine to follow up.
You live there for 6 months and you move to any place in the world living the good life.
And in total it would cost you about 100K, maybe 200k if you want a good dokter.
another option is kenny lay's pad in paraguay...
'tis Paradoxical !
If only part of that money is mob money (regardless of its country of origin), he won't last 3 months no matter how many plastic surgeries he would try. It's very hard to really disappear today, much less to live "the good life" with stolen goods. The countdown is on...
You would be amazed how easy it is and start all over. There’s a serious insurance carousel going on where people insure themselves, get a death sertificate, let the wife collect it and live the good life in a exotic place with fake papers.
I’ll tell you a secret: THERE’S A LOT OF OBSCURE PEOPLE WILLING TO DO EVERYTHING FOR MONEY OUT THERE!A LOT!!!
Piece of advice: don't try that with a mob guy whom you owe money... Wives, girlfriends, tax collectors, insurance companies, etc. they are all in a different category.
It doesn't work as advertised though with 2 kind of people: 1. spooks and 2. mobsters. Just DON'T try it with any of them...
Not if his second passport is Israel. Which is what I guess.
Hey Garret- good news, Bernie Madoff is looking for a new compliance chief- bend over and show him your resume when you see him.....
He done R-U-N-O-F-T!
Oh brother where art thou?
In this day and age of Trillion Dollar Thefts and scams $20 million dollar stealing playboys are not even noteworthy.
I suppose that since it was in Russia it means something ??
The FED stole $20,000,000 in the first 2 minutes of the day today.
NEXT !!
He went to Nigeria. They needed just one last bribe ($20M) and soon, this time for sure, he'll get $800 Billion transferred into his NY bank account.
Spic insurance...nothing to see here
Do not seek the treasure!
Repeat. Do not seek the treasure!
How does one steal $20M worth of 1s and 0s and not leave a trace?
Ask Corzine. Though he'd probably consider that chump change.
Down 300+ pts. Where's a sell-side marketer, aka "Fed spokesman" when you need him?
Exactly. These guys are pikers compared to Corzine and Dimon, who stole $1.20 Billion in broad daylight and have zero men in black suits looking for them.
Steal something under $10 from a convenience store and the National Guard is called in.
The MF Global magic trick was entirely state-approved, so the usual question set of {who, what, when, where, why} does not apply in that case. If the Blackfield magic trick is indeed 'untraceable,' then I am to agree with NotApplicable's question/assertion below.
It was North Korea you guys - the Disney Dictator.
"So defrauded investors should contact Garret Fillerman, The Honorable John S. Corzine, Jamie Diamond, Sam Israel, Byron Weinstein, Leon Cooperman, Carl "the Big Phlegm" Icahn, Rahm "Dual Citizen" Emanuel & Lloyd Blankfeinstein, or other notables of High Society, to inquire about receiving funds back."
CIA asset?
"How does one steal $20M worth of 1s and 0s and not leave a trace?"
Proxy?
Tor + VPN + Proxy?
oh wait...
20mln or MUCH more:
SHALOM SHLOMO
When the water or oil in this case recedes you will begin to see who has their clothes on.
FSB...?
I wouldn´t recommend any American capitalists to make a trip to Russia during current conditions. They would run a high risk of getting to "count trees" (euphemism for spending the rest of your natural life in a Siberian work camp,worked to death). And how would anyone get them out? Go to war with a country with a huge amount of nuclear capacity...? Don´t think so.
This slew of strange suicides and fatal mishaps amongst the gilded elites in makes one wonder...
A lot of people are banking on collapse of their economy and regime change. But that may be easier said than done. Violence and dragooning your population into something very supervised comes naturally to their culture in times of crisis.
A dose of polonium for you , comrade? On the house.
amateur... Corsine stole over a billion and it is enjoying his time free, drinking pina coladas on a tropical island
He should be drinking penis coladas in prison.
Djanuary Performance Writing: Minus one hundred Por-Cents. Vee sorries. No more mahneyz for you.
C Ya!
20 million can get you laid allot
And killed once or twice too.
Guy is an anchor on a boat off of Cyprus.
Guy is an anchor on several boats off Cyprus.
Fixedit4ya
Can get you dead a lot too if you steal it from the wrong people.
He better be a long way away from Moscow.
Most runaways get caught because bragging is more fun than being rich. The
urge to contact old friends and family becomes overwhelming.
He'll be spending most of it on expensive Plastic Surgery and bribes, to prevent ex-FSB hotshots (now hired) from tracking down his sorry ass, and doing some plastic or reconstructive 'surgery' on the spot. What a moron!
Russia (and Putin) cannot allow this to stand. Very bad for business and Russian image. This douchebag is "toast". It's only a matter of time.
"Garret Filler, former general counsel and chief compliance officer of U.S.-based Blackfield Capital LLC, declined to comment."
On the advice of his lawyer no doubt. Nothing like a little good old fashioned highway robbery to get the blood flowing.
Better call Saul!
HaHaHa!! Sometimes you don't need a criminal lawyer, you need a "CRIMINAL" lawyer. Better call Saul!!!!
Just the Foreward in the coming saga.
He and Corzine can start up a fund together.
Cuba baby!!!!
that Aston Martin would get noticed
London is a better place to hide
go unnoticed in the crowds of Bentley and Aston Martin driving scammers
London .. I heard that the London polonium coctails are to die for.
1. Start a hedgefund.
2. ???
3. Profit
Sounds so easy...
I think we figured out what #2 has always been - "defraud motherfuckers"
Probably a lot more dismay for market folks in the coming months.
Come on Jamie and Lloyd -- learn from the Russian and get out while you can!
Kim Karapetyan? Married to Kanye West, right? I keep up on my news.
Keeping up with the Karapetyans
- A new reality show starring Russian mafia who invested in the wrong hedge fund
sympathy to all the rich retards who trusted him with their cash
it's not their fault. they happen to be retarded and rich.
shyte for brains
It's a small world. I wouldn't want to be on the run from the Russians.
He is using FMLA. He can't be touched until this medical leave is over.
What normally happens is that the $20 million is 'on paper' and is what the investors see -- but you SKIP out when that $20 million has really fallen to $10 million and you recognize that you can no longer cover it up.
Good call.
Or you were embezzling, couldn't keep hiding it, and you decide to steal what is left and run.
Let's hope he didn't screw some tribe members.
If he did, he's dead.
You think Corzine did NOT screw some "tribe members??"
Madoff definitely did.
Madoff turned himself in.
He's dead either way. Especially if he screwed ex-FSB types, or biz guys with FSB connections.
The U.S.-based Blackfield Capital LLC was owned and run by the bunch of Armenians.
Don't call this fraud "Russian." It's not Russian.
as we speak (or type) Kim is handing off 16 million to four other insiders, who are all sworn to secrecy. yep...gotta close shop, Kim "stole" all the money. and, it's gone.
It's bonus time fursure
some folks got Karapetyanined
Kim K. "Corzined" some folks........
If you like your Aston Martin, you can keep your Aston Martin.
If you are Aston Martin, (unless he paid cash), you are going to have to repo your Aston Martin.
You vanish like that and more than likely some of his investors made him vanish...
Basically, the lawyer in a Hedgefund is there to get berated and humiliated by the traders who refer to him as that schmuck with the compliance manual.
Only $20 million? Chump change for the gangsters on the western side of the Atlantic.
Did he raise funds for and donate to the right political campaigns? That will determine whether he will be hunted down or protected.
I wonder if Putin had some cash in this...if so...he will be found..and delt with accordingly...
Putin on a Blitz?
There's gotta be a nail gun somewhere in that kid's future.
I heard he's running a scooter shop on Corfu.
Last thing on the above timeline is his Facebook and LinkedIn account were closed. THIS is when they decide things have gotten serious and they had better announce the guy has gone missing?! WTF!
Well you know... I mean, as long as we are still "friends", then I can trust you with my money right?
Twenty million and still no fun, can run and hide for awhile, but even I know, it's a small world, afterall.
say bye, to Putin?
Members of a certain class of Russian investor take major losses personally . . . I wonder who came looking for him? If the alternative is to be dead, I guess you may as well take the money and run.
Possible is funds might be found, while he confirmed disapeared...
As a single data point, this hardly matters. Taken in context with all of the other interesting troubles trickling out of hedge-fund land-- funds closing, people committing suicide or getting murdered-- this leaves one to conclude that investors are heavily-committed to some big trades that are not moving in the anticipated direction. I would assume that these are the strong dollar and the cliff-like fall in oil prices. While I suppose that it might be possible to counter-hedge one's original hedge, this merely results in a wash that does not cover the continuous burn rate that results from a high-rolling lifestyle financed from the anticipated profits of future payoffs. This burn rate leaves the company seriously short of cash at a time when nervous investors are redeeming their positions.
More runners to come. From all lands, all races, all nationalities, and all sexes.
Amateur.
Quick! Someone check skyscanner to see if another Asian plane has disappeared!
Well, that's Russia, what else did you expected?
Troll much? Jon Corzine, who stole 1.2 Billion, was not Russian. Bernie Madoff was not Russian.
.
Well, that is Latvian, what else do you expectings?
This freedom123 guy expects potato.
I bet his bodyguard just got a big raise...
Come'on, why is this a surprise? The Chinese are ripping off their companies and government agencies in their hundreds, and coming to the US/Canada/Australia/London to a penthouse near you.
You don't need a weather vane...
We are going to see a lot more of this kind of thing, it is a great way "out" as the music for muscial chairs stops. Kim Karapetyan has his. What's in your wallet?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/ruble-falls-on-first-trading-day-of-2015-142...
CORZ to rezINE
The name hints he is from Armenia(?).
Blackhole Capital.
You don't understand Mat6.
He probably owed someone $20mil.
They might even eventually find his parts.
DSK's Israeli pardner said the same thing.
He ended up jumping out of a high rise window in Israel on to the pavement below.
Putin is scaring a lot of local Oligarchs. They run with their lolly!
Thats the problem in history with "providential men", those who play at being ONE MAN CIVILIZATIONS.
Putin is there, like all those others. Proud like Caesar and looking down on the inferior.
In this day and age, a One man's providential band playing : "I can't get no satisfaction, and I tried and I tried", is like a dinosaur in the Taiga...
Take heed Libertarian America, "One man's freedom ends there where another man's freedom begins"...is the golden rule of Western civilization; inspite of the blips represented by "providential men" swimming in the Berezina and sighing : One small step between the Sublime and THIS AbSURD ending to my dream !
WhY? WHY? WHY ME?
So! The Russians do it too!
<--- US
<--- Israel
.
He better be praying to a bottle of Stoly that Ken Lay is looking for a roommate.
50 employees to manage $20 million? This has to be a front for the Fed or CIA or PPT.
Exactly what I was thinking. $20 mill is not a lot of money for having NY and Moscow office. Rents, employees, parties.
He'll eventually show up in Florida, all the vermin of the global elite end up in FL on some compound wealth protected by feds
Does her middle name begin with K too? Is she as big as Kim Dot Com?
I used to know a smoking hot shorty with the last name Karapetyan but spelled Carapetian. When I asked her about her heritage she said she was an Armenian Jew from Russia. A gentleman with me at the time who happened to be from Russia laughed but then quickly stopped when she shot him a very hostile look. One so hostile where you would think she was going to attack and kill him if you didn't know better
Later I asked him why he laughed and he said Armenian Jew?, outrageous there is no such thing in Russia. To which I replied why and he said it was an oxymoron but he refused to elaborate
Any of you Ruskies on here, including ZH staff, or others that have any insight willing to elaborate?
Its hard to know every global ethnic hatred and bias but ZH has a wide range of global viewers and posters
When it comes to stealing money, we are all jews (and catholics, hindu's etc)
' Later I asked him why he laughed and he said Armenian Jew?, outrageous there is no such thing in Russia. To which I replied why and he said it was an oxymoron but he refused to elaborate '
Actually quiet a few , Garry Kasparov comes to mind.
.
Is Boris be predict outcome? Maybe Ivan Hammeryourbalzov from Investor Relations be make asset recovery for comrade Karapetyan?
Anyone seen Boris recently?
Hmmm.......
In Russia, You do not see Boris, Boris sees you.
He'll surface. Not his style to live the quiet life in some South American villiage.
Maybe if you email him that he left the water running, he'll return...Oh, and tell me again why physical gold is a barbaric relic?....
Be prepared for more to come as the markets in 2015 will not deliver the alphas to these wannabees.