Bear Stearns hedge fund manager Ralph Cioffi has left the firm amid an investigation by US prosecutors into whether he pulled his money from two funds before they collapsed in July, reports Bloomberg. Cioffi, 51, ceased to be an employee last week, a Bear Stearns spokeswoman said, declining to say why he left or to comment on the federal probe. He had stayed on as an adviser to the New York-based securities firm after being relieved of his duties as a fund manager in June, when his funds’ subprime mortgage investments began to unravel. The US attorney in Brooklyn and the US SEC are investigating Cioffi’s withdrawal of some of his own money from the funds, three people with knowledge of the matter said. The probe is part of a broader regulatory review of the funds’ implosion, according to the people. Investors in the two funds, which filed for bankruptcy in July, lost $1.6bn of capital.
