| Illustration by Yarek Waszul. |
Arpad (Arki) Busson attended the January hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court dressed in a dark suit and clutching a copy of the Financial Times, the pink newspaper that serves as a universal signifier of the serious international businessman. The fund-of-hedge-funds manager was there to fight his corner in a legal battle with his ex-partner, actress Uma Thurman, over custody of their four-year-old daughter. As well as providing tantalizing details about the former couple’s private life — Busson reportedly found the students at the $25,000-a-year Brooklyn nursery school his daughter attends “disheveled and dirty” — the trial, which was avidly covered by the tabloids, gave some insights into Busson’s professional life. Not least among them: The former fundraiser for Paul Tudor Jones may have skipped his baccalaureate.
In sworn testimony Busson, 53, confirmed that he told Thurman he had paid someone to take the French national exam for him. If true, such a falsification could have ramifications for Busson, who heads fund-of-funds company LumX Group (previously Gottex Fund Management), which trades on the Swiss stock exchange. Wayne Davis, co-chairman of the financial service practice at law firm Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt, says falsifying academic credentials, as Busson may have done, is unlikely to trigger legal problems in the U.S. It could, however, discourage investors — especially institutional ones — as Busson seeks funds from institutions and high-net-worth individuals to invest in the $8.6 billion LumX general partnership.
Paris-born Busson comes from a family of European aristocrats with rich financial connections. In his younger years he attended the prestigious Swiss boarding school Le Rosey and served for a year in the French army. Afterward Busson was able to parlay his European Rolodex into a hedge fund career.
According to Bloomberg, that career began when Busson met hedge fund manager Jones at a restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village in the mid-1980s. The two were introduced, and Busson became a fundraiser for Tudor Investment Corp., one of the most successful hedge fund firms in history. He went on to raise money for Louis Bacon and Julian Robertson, among others.
Busson launched European Investment Management, which became EIM Group, in 1992. (A representative for LumX said the firm would not comment on a private matter; an attorney for Busson did not respond to a request for comment.)
The financier’s reputation for international glamour was bolstered by his presence on the charity circuit and the company he very publicly kept. Perhaps borrowing a page from Jones’s playbook, Busson formed a charity, Absolute Return for Kids; its annual fundraiser became a must-attend event on the London social calendar. In 1996 he began dating Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson. The couple had two children before splitting in 2005. Then came Thurman: The pair began dating in 2007 and announced their engagement the next year. They split in 2009, only to reconcile before irrevocably parting.
According to testimony that Thurman gave at the custody hearing, Busson’s behavior changed in late 2008, after the discovery of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Busson was an investor in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, the ficticious fund run by Madoff. EIM’s clients had about $230 million invested in funds connected to the notorious criminal. That, plus the hit that funds of hedge funds generally took in the financial collapse of 2008 and its aftermath, apparently grounded the high-flying Busson. Thurman said her fiancé became “stressed,” “very angry,” and “meaner” as a result of the problems his business faced.
From a high of about $11.5 billion, EIM lost assets, and in late 2013 the firm announced that it would be sold to Gottex Fund Management; Busson became chairman of the Swiss asset manager. On December 30, Gottex announced that after an extraordinary general meeting of its shareholders, the company was changing its name to LumX Group; it also wrote down the nominal value of its stock, from Sf1.00 ($1) to Sf0.10 a share. The company has said the name change better reflects the firm’s new strategic focus on offering alternative-investment solutions. The asset manager has been undergoing a restructuring under Busson’s leadership.
Busson — who lawyers say has had his travel to the U.S. restricted because of a fungal infection that caused him to lose part of a lung — was not granted primary custody of his daughter.
