prominent london hedgefund manager crispin odey left the firm he founded more than three decades ago after he was accused of years of sexual misconduct toward women “as from today he will no longer have any economic or personal involvement in the partnership” said a saturday letter from odey asset management executives the remaining partners will own and control the partnership as an independent legal entity the letter said the downfall of odey came after a financial times article on thursday said 13 women including former employees accused him of abusing or harassing them between 1998 and 2021 he told the ft that the allegations were “rubbish” odey didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about his departure from the firm it is a sharp fall from grace for odey a creature of the london hedgefund scene for decades and a longtime supporter of the conservative party he established his firm in 1991 working from london’s tony mayfair neighborhood and became known for making big bearish bets such as around britain’s decision to leave the european union his wealth soared above 1 billion in recent years according to the sunday times rich list the size of odey’s firm has gyrated over the years it managed around 49 billion as of earlier this year according to the firm’s website down from 12 billion almost a decade ago odey himself directly managed only a part of those funds after stepping back in recent years the ft article was the culmination of years of stories and accusations against him in december uk news outlet tortoise reported the cases of several women who accused him of mistreating them in 2021 odey pleaded not guilty in a london court of assaulting a junior banker more than 20 years ago he was acquitted in march 2021 he had stepped down from running odey asset management in november 2020 while fighting the indecentassault charge but still managed money in response to this week’s allegations of harassment and abuse some investment banks moved to distance themselves from the firm morgan stanley is working to cut its prime brokerage business to the hedge fund while jpmorgan chase is reviewing its prime brokerage ties to determine whether it should end the business relationship according to people familiar with those moves after a review goldman sachs is now in the process of ending its prime brokerage business with odey the wall street journal previously reported investment banks and other financial players have struggled to navigate the pitfalls of doing business with clients accused of wrongdoing that pressure has mounted since jeffrey epstein was arrested in 2019 for orchestrating a scheme to traffic and sexually abuse girls the financier who killed himself in jail has since been linked to many rich and powerful people in finance technology and politics acting as an investment manager in the uk means passing what the regulator calls fit and proper checks these include maintaining standards of honesty integrity and reputation firms are also required to inform the financial regulator about any significant allegations or internal investigations write to caitlin mccabe at caitlinmccabewsjcom and margot patrick at margotpatrickwsjcom