Atlanta Journal Constitution – In a day that should have been stuffed with scrapbook memories for Calvin Paris, he met the man who has turned his life into a cautionary tale.
Among the guests at his son’s wedding was Kirk Wright, a former classmate of the groom at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Paris was a South Florida retiree with a healthy nest egg, Wright a personable young investment manager trolling for clients. Wright persuaded the former business executive to pony up $100,000, for starters.
Wright steered him toward the high-speed lane of investments. Hedge funds, which delve into arcane areas such as arbitrage and short selling, are not for the faint of heart. They make dabbling in the mainstream stock market seem as tame as opening a passbook savings account.
And, because hedge funds functioned until recently with almost no oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the industry has been more susceptible than regulated investment vehicles to attracting the less principled or trained managers. Such funds have been captained by former cops, athletes and, commonly, exiles from the medical profession. Wright’s two lieutenants were longtime Atlanta anesthesiologists.
Paris was no kidnap victim. He knew the risks. His newlywed son had an account. So he took the plunge, ultimately handing over about $1 million to Wright’s International Management Associates, based in Marietta.
In time, Paris grew suspicious but not enough to retrieve his money.
