Excerpt from HedgeSpeak:

I saw the green light flicker on my phone and answered. A quiet voice with a German accent stated: “I voot like to speak vit “Bob Picard.” He immediately took on a menacing voice saying that he had heard that I was bad mouthing his hedge fund and that he had no choice but to personally sue me, my firm, and my family. He added that he would make sure that "my team would not work on Wall Street again." He then hung up the phone. As the line went dead, I started immediately thinking about my on site due diligence visits and what information I may have shared with anyone. All this was done in seconds and immediately turned to my “desk counsel” who was never more than 3 feet away at any given time of day.

“Kev, we have a problem. I was just personally threatened by Michael Berger, one of those managers who did not make it through our screening.”

Too often we forget that Wall Street and its Hedge Fund industry is about people and trust. In the hedge fund world, reputation and trust are seeded, grown and nurtured for years at a time

Let’s back up 6 months. The Fund was called Manhattan Capital, managed by an Austrian national named Michael Berger. The fund was brought to our attention from investors who claimed that Manhattan Capital Management was the ultimate Long Short equity hedge fund. It would make money during market rallies and would protect capital and make even more money in down markets. His track record included returns over 30% per annum regardless of the year and the market direction.

We met in beautiful offices in mid town. Surprisingly, he did not bring us to a conference room, but sat us down in an area off the reception area adorned with couches.

Michael was a low talker quietly smoking a cigarette throughout the meeting...