Crime

Louis Bacon's charity says it was victim of executive accused of fraud

Matthew Goldstein and Alexandra Stevenson
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Louis Bacon, chief executive officer of Moore Capital Management LLC, speaks to an attendee during the Dubin Breast Center Gala in New York, U.S., on Monday, Dec. 12, 2011.
Amanda Gordon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The hedge fund billionaire Louis M. Bacon's charitable foundation was a victim of a fraudulent scheme by the 39-year-old Wall Street executive Andrew Caspersen, the foundation said on Tuesday.

The Moore Charitable Foundation, a trust "established to protect our land, water and wildlife for the benefit of future generations," said in a statement that it was "lied to by Andrew Caspersen, a managing director at investment bank PJT Partners, regarding a potential investment related to the publicly announced restructuring of a private equity fund."

The foundation put $25 million into what federal authorities on Monday called a "brazen" scheme to defraud investors.

The Moore Charitable Foundation said that it "detected irregularities in a proposed follow-on deal" and then "swiftly notified PJT Partners' general counsel's office and cooperated with PJT in their investigation of the issue."


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PJT contacted the United States attorney's office in Manhattan. The foundation is cooperating with an investigation by federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mr. Bacon, whose hedge fund is Moore Capital Management, founded the Moore Charitable Foundation in 1992 as a family foundation.

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Authorities contend that Mr. Caspersen used fake emails and invented an investment vehicle that had a name similar to that of a real fund in which his firm Park Hill Group was involved in raising money.

The authorities said he lost much of the $25 million from the foundation in "aggressive options trading." As a condition of his bond, a magistrate judge ordered he get a mental health evaluation and alcohol testing and treatment.

Andrew Caspersen (R) departs after a hearing at the U.S. Federal Court in New York March 28, 2016
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Mr. Caspersen, who comes from a wealthy family and was successful in his own right, was well compensated at Park Hill. Prosecutors said in court that he earned $3.68 million in 2015 and $4.5 million in 2014.

The accusations against Mr. Caspersen shocked his former employers Coller Capital and Park Hill.

PJT Partners, an advisory firm that was spun out of Blackstone and owns Park Hill, said in a statement that it was "stunned and outraged" to learn of the allegations.

Shares of PJT, which tumbled nearly 11 percent on Monday, were down about 1 percent on Tuesday.

Coller Capital, where Mr. Caspersen worked for nine years before joining Park Hill, sought to distance itself from any scandal, saying that the firm had "no reason to believe there was any wrongdoing by Mr. Caspersen during his time of employment with Coller."