Finvest’s Grieve Puts House On Market, Alleged Swindler Still MIA

Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Author: FINalternatives.com

Last August, we broke the news that something fishy was going on at Gad Grieve’s New York-based fund of hedge funds Finvest. Needless to say, Grieve, who had spoken to FINalternatives about his funds numerous times over the years, was not happy with our reporting. In a letter to managing editor Hung Tran, Grieve penned his displeasure. 

“Hung, I have always admired and respected you and your publication for your ability to report objectively. Therefore it was surprise for me to learn of the article which you published and which suggested that Finvest was in ‘difficulty,'" Grieve wrote in an email at the time. "I have always been as transparent and cooperative with you as possible, and therefore I cannot fathom, understand or comprehend why you would want to write an article like that which is simply not true and which has no basis or foundation.”

Alas, less than six months after we published the story, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought fraud charges against Grieve. And now, it seems that the hedge fund manager who called our bluff and allegedly bilked his clients for millions is going from high roller to homeless.

Last May, Grieve bought a five bedroom Upper East Side gem for $11.8 million. That 5,700 square-foot crash pad, complete with eight fireplaces, is now on the market for $12.9 million, according to a report in The New York Observer. 

“The building is drop-dead gorgeous. It’s been totally wired with fiber-optic cable; there’s a security system with cameras everywhere,” the broker Laurie Trontz told the newspaper. However, when the newspaper’s reporter mentioned the SEC, she hung up. Trontz now claims that the home is being sold by “a European investment syndicate.” According to the Observer, Grieve’s name is on both the deed and the mortgage, and the SEC has an ‘order of attachment’ against the home, which means that if it is sold, Grieve won’t necessarily get the money.

Meanwhile, it seems that Grieve is now ‘missing,’ so to speak. The SEC doesn’t know where Grieve is, with one agent speculating that he may be in Israel or South Africa. One thing is for certain, Grieve’s note to Tran—the one that chastises him for his poor reporting—now hangs on the FINalternatives Wall of Shame (right next to former hedgie Albert Hsu’s personals page, and numerous other gems).