Globe and Mail- You think you’ve got bad timing with your investments? Spare a thought, and maybe a prayer, for hedge fund manager Jim Allan.
Back in the rosy hope of summer, which feels like a hundred years ago, Mr. Allan invited friends and business acquaintances to a party. The scene was the Rosedale Golf Club in Toronto and the occasion was a birthday: His firm, Roundtable Capital, was one year old. Paul Beeston, who once ran the Toronto Blue Jays, was there. So was former RJR Nabisco boss Ross Johnson, a man who will live on forever as the antagonist in Barbarians at the Gate, one of the best business books ever written.
The guests noshed on tuna sashimi and coconut shrimp. Mr. Allan dished out some thoughts on the stock market. A society photographer captured the event and the National Post published a short item on it. Three days after it appeared – July 31 – he launched a new, multimillion-dollar fund. Life was good.
Then all hell broke lose.
