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, [5] 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, [5]
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slowdown in Russia,” according to a former employee, who heard from staffers in Moscow that several big investors had withdrawn funds.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."
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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... [7]



