Vassili Oxenuk says he's a former spy, a math whiz and a gun enthusiast. He's also a fund manager with a lot of angry, frightened investors.Possibly related:
When Vassili Oxenuk sat down with some unhappy investors at San Francisco's Grand Hyatt last May, he noted that they were meeting in the Warfield Room. "This is a war between you and me," said the burly Russian émigré, according to one investor's notes. "I have hired guns to handle situations for me.…I can call them anytime."
Talk of guns, say his investors, was strange to hear from the previously charming graduate of a prestigious Moscow math academy who later worked in Russian intelligence. Oxenuk had started out witty and solicitous, claiming to have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in the U.S. for wealthy clients from Kazakhstan and families of some of Ukraine's political leaders. When Oxenuk promised to double their money in a year, the investors say they believed him.
However, former investors, partners, and employees told Barron's that Oxenuk revealed a tougher side when investors wanted their money back. Nearly all were afraid to speak on the record, citing their personal embarrassment over the losses, his threats, and photos of Oxenuk with assault weapons on Facebook and in a Russian business magazine.
Oxenuk, 48, denies that he has ever defrauded or threatened anyone. Guns are a hobby to him, nothing more, he says. In Skype interviews interpreted by his wife or by his secretary, the onetime spy-agency employee told Barron's that the complaints about him are likely a Soviet-style "black p.r." campaign, coordinated by ex-associates who want revenge for soured deals. Specifically, he says, they're trying to undermine an investment conference for Russian entrepreneurs he advertised as scheduled for April 1 at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort. Last Thursday, the Wynn told Barron's that no such conference was scheduled. Reached on Friday, Oxenuk said he'd changed the conference into a membership club for foreign entrepreneurs who agreed to pay him $2,000 a year for advice on how to raise money in the U.S. for their businesses. He added that 30 businesses had signed on.
The change in strategy follows some recent disputes between Oxenuk and investors. Some of his Ukrainian investors recently won a $5 million default judgment against him in Las Vegas' federal court. A year ago, other investors complained about him to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Regulators have not accused Oxenuk of any wrongdoing. The losses alleged aren't huge. Investors say they entrusted Oxenuk with less than $10 million; a couple of hundred million dollars in stock-market capitalization has vanished from his failed public ventures. Oxenuk acknowledges some losses but argues they weren't his fault. The investor complaints, however, do underscore the risks of investing across borders with funds sent via offshore channels to unregistered advisors. Neither the SEC nor the FBI would comment for this story....MORE
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Better Get The Leg Irons Boys.
These Ain't Regular Criminals,
These is Stockbrokers.
-One of Climateer's favorite Barron's headlines.
Oh happy day.
Long time readers know I have a morbid fascination* with the underbelly of the markets; it's like watching the lions approach the wildebeest at the watering hole, you don't want to see it but you can't look away.
As they say on the nature shows:
"Sadly now, there can be but one outcome"...
