A small New York hedge fund has secretly managed $7 billion for a Russian oligarch for over a decade, the SEC says

• The SEC charged a small New York hedge fund with acting as an unregistered investment advisor this week.
• Concord Management earned tens of millions of dollars advising an unnamed Russian tycoon, the financial watchdog said.
• The New York Times reported that the businessman in question is former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich.

A small, little-known New York hedge fund and its owner made tens of millions of dollars managing money for an unnamed Russian tycoon who has political clout in Moscow, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

On Tuesday, the US financial watchdog charged Westchester County-based Concord Management LLC and its owner Michael Matlin with not registering with the authorities that they were investing money on behalf of "a wealthy former Russian official widely regarded as having political connections to the Russian Federation".

Since 1999 Concord has made over $80 million managing the client's assets, which as of January 2022 were worth $7.2 billion, the regulator added.

The SEC didn't name the Russian official in question. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Concord had managed money for the oligarch Roman Abramovich, citing a person familiar with the matter.

"According to the complaint, in March 2022, the United Kingdom and the European Union designated Matlin and Concord's client a sanctioned individual and the client's assets were subsequently frozen. The SEC's complaint alleges that, a month prior, in February 2022, Concord and Matlin assisted the client in his attempts to redeem investments and/or sell his securities portfolio," the SEC said in a press statement.

Abramovich was the governor of the Chukotka region in eastern Russia between 2000 and 2008 and is regarded as having a strong relationship with the country's president, Vladimir Putin.

He is best known in the West for owning the English soccer team Chelsea FC between 2003 and 2022, before the UK government froze his assets and made him sell the club after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine.

Concord did not immediately respond to an Insider request for comment.