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Last October, Citadel LLC’s Surveyor Capital unit suddenly fired several portfolio managers at once.
In the preceding five months, half of Surveyor’s portfolio managers had either been fired or resigned. In May, Todd Barker, the head of Surveyor Capital himself, departed after 16 years at the firm.
His timing was good. All hell was about to break loose.
In November, just after the mass firings at Surveyor, Morgan Stanley’s head of block trading suddenly stopped showing up for work. The trader, Pawan Passi, had been put on leave due to a federal investigation of his conduct, Bloomberg later reported.
Passi and Morgan Stanley are under investigation for allowing hedge funds to front run large block trades of stock. A tip-off from Passi could let a hedge fund buy or sell right before a big institution, locking in profits and giving the institution a worse price.
Also ensnared in the probe: Andrew Liebeskind, Surveyor’s top trader. Passi may have fed him tips on big trades to front run.
So Surveyor suddenly fired a large group of traders right before the federal probe came to light in November. Were they either part of the alleged scheme or, worse, fall guys for top executives like Liebeskind?
We will have to wait for more information to surface in the federal investigation before we know for sure. But I find the timing….convenient.
What do you think is behind the sudden Citadel firings? Leave a comment below and let me know.
Have a great weekend everyone!
More on markets:
Citadel Under Federal Investigation
Melvin Capital Under Federal Investigation
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Photo: Citadel LLC CEO Kenneth Griffin
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Tremendous 
When I think of Kenneth Griffin the story of Nick Leeson comes to mind. Citadel is dirty along with several other short hedge funds that work together to manipulate the markets. Politicians are paid off. They employ ex sec and ftc officials after they retire. Yes the same officials that spent a career not doing their jobs to police these firms. They manipulate dark pools. They borrow shares they never intend to pay for. They evade taxes by leaving positions open and instead using them as leverage. They make money by helping put good companies out of business. They have our entire markets at great risk of default. They trade ahead of retail orders. Offer PFOF so they can internalize orders and organize them as they see fit. They send only what they like to lit exchanges to make the markets move how THEY want it to move. They are the bottom feeders of our society and their time is up.
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Please forward proof of these claims to SEC and DOJ
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Sounds like a pool of future whistle blowers.
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That’s what I’m expecting… These lower level people later get immunity and testify against the top people.
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Hello GaryG, hello american authorities – hurry up, improvements overdue, no more excuses!
– E N F O R C E M E N T –
change the UNITED FAKES OF AMERICA
into the United States again,
OR
-international money will leave (most domestic too)
-USD DEAD
-US economy DEAD
closing the missues in DP could be done in an instance; inforced long ago!
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Financial market Regulation needs complete strict overhaul. Self-reporting and Self-regulation cannot be allowed for greedy $Billion players moving market prices using loopholes.
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Yeah self regulation is a joke. Notice average people never get to do that?
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Thank you for coverage. Great article
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I’m so glad you liked it! You get a decent number of bitchy comments so you’re grateful for the good ones! 🙂 what other topics interest you? Always looking for new ideas to write about.
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Citadel, Hedge Fund, Market Maker, Dark Pool = Sumpin ain’t right..
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