SEC Hits Former BlackRock Portfolio Manager by Charging $250M

• BlackRock’s former portfolio manager committed to paying a $250,000 fine to SEC
• BlackRock has pledged $17 million to bankrupt bitcoin miner Core Scientific.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged investment giant BlackRock’s former portfolio manager Randy Robertson on Thursday for failing to declare a conflict of interest. Robertson has committed to paying a $250,000 fine to settle charges. Also, he accepted a cease-and-desist order without acknowledging or refuting the SEC’s findings.

Mr. Randy Robertson resigned from BlackRock in February 2020. According to the U.S. SEC, Robertson failed to disclose a relationship that he had with a film distributor. Where millions of funds were invested by the fund he managed for BlackRock.

SEC Charges Against Ex-Portfolio Manager

Randy Robertson is an ex-managing director at BlackRock and a former co-portfolio manager for the closed-end Multi-Sector Income Trust (BIT). BIT issued the fund up to $75 million in loans to the Aviron Group LLC companies between 2015 and 2019. 

SEC claims Robertson failed to inform the trustees of the fund that he had requested Aviron to “help advance his daughter’s acting career”. And that the film company had supported his daughter in landing a role in a 2019 movie. But Robertson was not revealed that he is looking for Avrion support.

Andrew Dean, Co-Chief of the Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit, stated;

Investment professionals must be forthcoming about any conflicts of interest they may have with the companies in which they invest client funds, including situations involving favors or assistance to family members.

However, according to an SEC filing on December 22, 2022, BlackRock has pledged $17 million to bankrupt bitcoin miner Core Scientific (CORZ). The fund would act as a component of a new $75 million loan from the holders of the miner’s secured convertible notes.