New Orleans Money Withdrawn from Clinton Group

NEW ORLEANS, La. (HedgeWorld.com)–The board of the City of New Orleans Employees’ Retirement System decided to withdraw US$2 million from a Clinton Group multi-strategy hedge fund, according to its chairman, Jerry Davis.

The board reached this decision at “an exhaustive, all-day meeting” Feb. 25, Mr. Davis said, “when we talked to each of our alternative managers, and there are 12 of them.”

He said that the board made that decision only reluctantly and in light of the troubles the Clinton Group, New York, has experienced since the accusations leveled against them last year by a former employee, Anthony Barkan Previous HedgeWorld Story.

Mr. Davis emphasized that the New Orleans system’s board has no quarrel with the Clinton Group management. “I’ve been a fan of the Clinton Group for years,” he said, and he believed that Mr. Barkan’s allegations are unsubstantiated.

The board has not chosen another manager to take the place of the Clinton Group and doesn’t plan to. “We’ll reprogram the money into some of the other managers that we have on board,” Mr. Davis said, and keep an eye on the Clinton Group in the hope that their troubles will subside and that they can once again assume a role within this portfolio.