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Reuters
16-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Former senior employee brings unfair dismissal case against London-based hedge fund
LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - A former senior employee is suing the hedge fund he worked for, claiming bullying and unfair dismissal, in a case that is being heard by a London employment tribunal. Jacopo Moretti is seeking damages from DL and Partners, its star manager Davide Leone, and four other directors of the hedge fund, which once oversaw as much as $1.5 billion. Moretti, a co-founder and former director at the hedge fund, alleges he was unfairly dismissed and that he was the victim of verbal abuse, harassment and antisemitism, according to court documents. He also claims that reasonable adjustments were not made for a disability linked to his mental health. Leone, the hedge fund and the four other directors deny the claims. A representative for them told Reuters: "The action is based on totally false allegations and his (Moretti's) claims are completely groundless." A representative for Moretti said he was subjected to years of systematic verbal and psychological abuse, gaslighting and discrimination, and had been diagnosed with a disabling psychiatric injury. DL and Partners acknowledged Moretti's status as disabled in May 2023, court documents show. The tribunal will also decide whether disclosures Moretti made directly to Leone and to others at the firm, including the hedge fund's chief lawyer, are covered by whistleblower protections. These disclosures were about the firm's working environment and how it had affected Moretti's health. Britain's Financial Conduct Authority is due to set out in June how it will tackle non-financial misconduct in the industry. The FCA declined to offer an update on the new regulatory changes or comment on the case. The size of damages being sought by Moretti and whether this will include lost earnings will depend on the tribunal judge's decision on each claim. Moretti's earnings from DL and Partners averaged around $2 million a year, court documents show. Unusually, the tribunal has admitted evidence presented by Moretti that includes over 60 hours of covert recordings. Witness statements from DL and Partners and Leone said these recordings were unauthorised. Moretti, who in 2023 received a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder while he was off work, claims he felt threatened by Leone on a number of occasions, the court documents show. In them, Leone is quoted as saying that it would be "very cheap to hire a murderer" and telling Moretti how much an assassin would cost. The defence's response says these remarks were part of a "light-hearted" conversation and taken out of context, and that "in the hedge fund industry, robust exchanges are to be expected". Leone's legal papers describe Moretti's claims of harassment as confused and false, and point to $86 million in investment losses attributed to him from 2021 and into 2022. From this point, Moretti began gathering evidence for a legal case, their documents say. Moretti's representative said his client's investment recommendations were not followed and that he was not responsible for the losses. He also pointed to Moretti's legal filings which describe long working hours and little time off and said Moretti raised repeated "whistleblower" concerns about Leone's behaviours and their impact on his health. Moretti went on leave from the hedge fund from April 2022. The court documents show DL and Partners terminated his employment contract in June 2023. The hedge fund had rejected a grievance raised by Moretti after hiring a law firm to investigate it. The employment tribunal case started in parallel to a High Court case which Moretti brought against the hedge fund and its founder last year. That case has been paused until the tribunal is finished, the documents show. Witness statements for Leone and Moretti point to another tribunal arbitration where Moretti argued he was a shareholding partner in the fund. This was dismissed in August 2024 with Moretti paying costs. The case continues.
Telegraph
15-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
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'.
Bloomberg
15-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Hedge Fund Founder Accused of Bullying, Homophobia in UK Employment Suit
Italian hedge fund executives who once saw each other as brothers are now embroiled in a London legal fight that surfaces allegations of bullying, homophobia and antisemitism in the office. Davide Leone, founder of the eponymous hedge fund that managed as much as €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion), is defending an unfair dismissal lawsuit filed by an ex-partner at the fund, who alleged he regularly used offensive slurs in the workplace. Jacopo Moretti sued the hedge fund when he was fired after being signed off sick for more than a year in June 2023.
