WSJ: Greek Orthodox priest boasts of ability to ‘crash’ stocks

Well, this is…different.

There are thousands of hedge funds in the world, but only one is run by a traveling priest who boasts of his ability to “crash” stocks in between baptisms, funerals and Sunday sermons in this bucolic New Hampshire town.

“My whole life I always knew things before they happened. I guess it’s just a gift from God,” said Mr. Lemelson, 39 years old.

So far he is hardly the second coming of George Soros. His fledgling Amvona Fund LP is a blip in a $3 trillion universe where anyone can call themselves a hedge-fund manager, most anyone can market themselves as one and it is possible to operate with almost no official scrutiny.

This man of the cloth has earned enough—millions of dollars in the past few years for the firm’s general partnership, according to audited investor documents—to live a distinct double life.

Late last month, he donned his clerical collar to offer opening prayers and a personal blessing at a town-hall meeting here for Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate who has made raising taxes on hedge-fund managers a campaign centerpiece.

Posted by on October 27th, 2015 at 12:38 pm


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