Secretive Billionaire Hedge Fund Firm Pledges Money to Fight Racial Injustice

(Bloomberg) -- Hedge fund manager Chris Rokos’s investment firm has waded into the raging debate on racial discrimination sparked by the killing of George Floyd and vowed to use its money to help fight the injustice.

Floyd’s death in police custody in May, which sparked a wave of protests across the U.S., “has been a wake-up call to the world,” the secretive London-based money manager said in a rare statement.

“Rokos Capital Management’s business is normally to observe and analyze, not comment on, public affairs. But this matters enough for us to publicly state our position,” according to the statement. “The evidence of institutionalized racial bias, which was well known but officially unrecognized, has now become overwhelming.”

While Rokos Capital acknowledged that it has more work to do to promote diversity internally, the firm has committed to spend millions of dollars over the next five years backing initiatives in parts of London which have a high proportion of people of African, Caribbean and other minority ethnicity.

Rokos joins a cohort of peers such as hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones and Michael Novogratz, the CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners, in speaking out against racial discrimination.

Floyd’s death has prompted collective demands for action with Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo & Co. vowing to elevate Black executives. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has required more bias training; JPMorgan Chase & Co. has expanded its mentoring programs; and Bank of America Corp. has pledged money to fight inequality.

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Rokos declined to provide a precise total for its commitments to racial equality, saying that its statement referred to two initial projects.

In one such initiative, it is helping set up the “Chrysalis East” project, which aims to maximize the educational opportunities for children, many of whom are from an ethnic minority background. The firm will also work with The Amos Bursary, that helps young men and women of African and Caribbean descent.

“Like many companies, RCM has more work to do in terms of diversity, and this is something that we are working on,” the firm said in the statement. “However, whilst recognizing the need to address our own deficiencies, we are clear that they cannot be a reason for us to do or say nothing.”

Rokos, whose net worth is about $1.5 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, started his macro trading investment firm in 2015. He manages more than $13 billion in one of the largest hedge funds in Europe.

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