“On a summer Friday afternoon last year, hedge-fund manager Dan Kamensky broke bankruptcy laws. That evening on a recorded line, he pleaded with a banker to say the whole thing was a misunderstanding. “Maybe I should go to jail,” Mr. Kamensky said on the call.
Mr. Kamensky reports to federal prison on June 18. His hedge fund is in the process of closing, and a career that included stints at white-shoe law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and storied hedge fund Paulson & Co. has been wrecked. “He came undone,” U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said during a court hearing on May 7.
Mr. Kamensky, 48 years old, worked in the high-stakes, high-conflict world of distressed investing, which aims to profit from companies teetering on the brink of or in bankruptcy. He launched his hedge fund, Marble Ridge, in 2015 with $20 million and was managing nearly $1 billion a few years later. His fund … was a relatively small player in the distressed market …
He was anxious, had difficulty sleeping, lost weight and had trouble concentrating at the office or at home … In 2017, Mr. Kamensky began working with a psychologist and a sleep specialist. He also consulted an executive coach … His efforts to control his emotions began to unravel in a bitter fight over struggling luxury-goods retailer Neiman Marcus Group Ltd.”Thought maybe
@Junkster would enjoy this story.
Excerpted / edited for brevity from
The Wall Street Journal, June 14, 2021https://www.wsj.com/articles/hedge-fund-manager-who-came-undone-is-headed-to-prison-11623490201
