Ex-Halcyon Hedgie Proves Every Alum Of Goldman Doesn't Turn To Gold

When investors in Halcyon Structured Asset Management's Structured Opportunities Funds for Europe and North America received their July investment letter the news was not good - the funds were down about 20 percent in 2008.

...

The two funds of its Structured Finance Unit, with a total of $1.5 billion under management at the beginning of the year, had never done so poorly. Investors had already pulled over $500 million from the funds, run by former Goldman Sachs trader Steven Mandis, and were threatening to pull more, sources inside Halcyon tell The Post.

...

It was quite a fall for Mandis, 38, a protégé of former Treasury Secretary and Goldman partner Robert Rubin, who bolted Goldman for Halcyon in 2004. At the time, Mandis was seen as a rising star in both the hedge-fund world and in New York's social circles.

...

Mandis' departure came less than 72 hours after The Post made inquiries about the funds' losses for 2008 and rumors of a partners vote this week to oust him.

"We knew returns were really bad at the end of June but that it was amplified because of the leverage Steve choose to use in his funds," one investor in Mandis' funds told The Post. "I was actually shocked they got rid of him. They just touted him as becoming a vice chairman of the proposed public company."