Hedge fund boss claimed ‘corrupt Jews' were trying to kill him
The head of a £1bn Mayfair hedge fund was convinced 'corrupt Jews' were trying to kill him after his EV charger exploded, an employment tribunal has heard.
Davide Leone, the founder of hedge fund Davide Leone & Partners, was paranoid that 'big Jews' linked to one of his former employees were trying to sabotage his business and have him assassinated.
The claims were submitted to the Central London employment tribunal by Jacapo Moretti, who alleges he was subjected to 'systematic victimisation and harassment for years' while working as a director at Mr Leone's hedge fund for more than a decade.
Mr Moretti claimed Mr Leone, 49, was paranoid that powerful Jewish investors were behind various plots to burgle his home and offices, hack his computers and kill him by tampering with his car charger.
He is seeking more than £100m in compensation over claims he was unfairly fired from his job at Mr Leone's hedge fund after suffering years of anti-Semitic bullying.
Mr Leone spent 'countless hours' talking about his paranoid thoughts, Mr Moretti claimed, including that people were following him and 'organised criminals' had been paid millions to kill him and his family.
In submissions to the employment tribunal, Mr Moretti said he was subjected to 'egregious conduct' while working at Davide Leone & Partners, including anti-Semitic remarks related to Mr Leone's 'paranoia and conspiracy theorist attitudes'.
He claimed that his former boss would call him 'Rabbi' if he showed unwillingness to spend money and was 'fixated' on whether people were Jewish.
Mr Moretti was fired in June 2023 following a period of extended sick leave related to his mental health. He claims the 'insufferable working conditions' he experienced at the hedge fund left him with a multitude of issues including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Evidence submitted to the tribunal includes secret recordings of conversations between Mr Moretti and Mr Leone, which Mr Moretti began making when the relationship between the pair started to deteriorate in 2021.
In response to the allegations, Mr Leone said he was unaware Mr Moretti was Jewish and accused his former employee of submitting 'lurid allegations' to damage his reputation after their friendship imploded following a clash over annual bonuses.
Speaking to the employment tribunal, Mr Leone apologised for his choice of words but said comments made on private phone calls or in informal conversations had been taken out of context, with some of the remarks mistranslated from Italian.
He also argued that his comments about Jewish people were not derogatory. He claimed he often referred to people as 'Jews' in the same way he would refer to a person's nationality. References to 'big Jews' were indications of their status within the Jewish community, he added.
In response to claims he was paranoid about a plot to kill him, submissions made by Mr Leone state: 'I was legitimately concerned for my own safety and that of my family and I accept that on occasion I spoke to Mr Moretti as my closest confidant and right hand man about some of this.'
Mr Moretti was first hired by Mr Leone in 2011 just weeks after he launched his hedge fund. The two men had known each other for decades, having first been introduced by their mothers, who had worked together as school teachers in Saronno, near Milan.
Mr Moretti's job paid him around £1.4m a year to oversee investment decisions at the firm, which managed more than $1.5bn (£1.1bn) in assets for investors including university endowments and pensions funds for ex-civil servants and police officers.
In submissions to the employment tribunal, Mr Moretti said he 'dedicated his life' to working at Davide Leone & Partners, including by regularly working 12 to 18-hour workdays. Mr Leone denied that Mr Moretti had worked 'excessively'.
A spokesman for Davide Leone & Partners said: 'The action is based on totally false allegations and his claims are completely groundless.'
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