The Hollywood Drama That Cost a BlackRock Fund $75 Million

Image Credit: Aviron.com

Take a break from the market turmoil to ponder the drama at a little fund run by the world’s biggest asset manager. It involves allegations of fraud and forgery, not to mention a fund manager’s daughter landing a part in a movie the fund financed.

We’re talking about the BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust. In 2017, the fund, which at that time had $750 million in net assets, lent a tenth of that to a small, privately held movie company, Aviron Capital LLC. It was an unusually aggressive bet. By late 2019, the fund said the loan wasn’t worth anything, for a nearly $75 million loss. In December, it filed a lawsuit against Aviron and its owner, William Sadleir.

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This article was originally published on The Wall Street Journal.

Further reading

Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor