Hedge Fund Boss Spies On Her Own Management Team

Hedge funds can be tough, unforgiving environments in which to work. Those who enter the field understand that one may experience difficult conditions, while the financial rewards offer some palliative effect. However, few hedgies anticipate experiencing a covert spying operation, designed to find dirt, from their ultimate employer.

That latter situation is exactly what key employees at Ikos, a European hedge fund, recently encountered. The owner, a very wealthy Greek businesswoman, conducted "'large scale'" surveillance operations against her minions. The information came to light in a UK court case and was reported in today's Financial Times.

It's hard to feel sympathetic toward hedge fund employees. The notoriously secretive industry essentially runs a laissez-faire form of capitalism and feels little, if any, sense of social leadership. Yes, some hedge fund managers would ruin a sovereign nation, a massive multinational firm, or a housing market whose solvency is critical to global economic stability. At some point, deep-pocketed investment firms can't continue to insist the world's financial crisis is someone else's problem.

The image shows a new Minox digitial spy camera. Many years ago, I knew a medical practitioner who went on vacation with a spy camera. He said he used it because the spy cam was light and maneuverable. He didn't say where he purchased the microfilm for it.