The collapse of Amaranth Advisors may not have been as unforeseeable as some hit by the falling debris would have us believe. Fauchier Partners, the $4.3 billion London fund of funds run by Christopher Fawcett, was so desperate to get out of its $30 million investment with Greenwich, Conn.-based Amaranth – an investment inherited from an acquired competitor – that it paid a 1.5% early redemption fee, The Times of London reports. In a letter to investors, Fawcett called Amaranth’s problems “anything but unforeseeable,” and enumerated his reasons for yanking his clients’ cash. “Amaranth had just about every characteristic we do not look for in a hedge fund,” he wrote, citing 11 red flags, including lack of a third-party administrator, bad risk controls, high leverage, poor transparency and hubris. Amaranth was “a fund with back risk management and unattractive terms for investors,” Fawcett wrote.
