Billionaire Platt's BlueCrest under SEC probe over employee fund - Bloomberg
(Reuters) - BlueCrest Capital Management, the hedge fund firm founded by billionaire Michael Platt, is being investigated by a U.S. financial regulator over possible conflicts posed by an internal fund that manages the money of its partners, Bloomberg reported.
The Securities and Exchange Commission started the investigation last year, Bloomberg said on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
The SEC declined to comment.
BlueCrest told Reuters in an emailed statement that it had received a number of queries from the SEC and its other regulators since it announced in December it would transition to a private investment partnership.
The firm said it had received no accusations of wrongdoing till date and that it would cooperative with all its regulators.
BlueCrest said in December that it would return all the cash provided by outside investors amid pressure on fees, rising costs and a lacklustre performance.
The BlueCrest employee fund, called BSMA Ltd, sparked controversy when investment adviser Albourne Partners Ltd told its clients in 2014 that it had just learned of the fund's existence and that BSMA had not been sufficiently transparent when asked about potential conflicts, Bloomberg said.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
