A hedge fund boss who’s being sued by his personal mom over unpaid money owed has been residing it up in Miami and jetting off on dear holidays — whilst his workers flee and his shoppers demand their money again, The Put up has discovered.
Jason Ader — CEO of Spring Owl Asset Administration, an activist fund that in previous years helped topple CEOs together with Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer — admitted in a letter to traders the agency’s principal fund was going through “a challenging period” because it proceeds with “the liquidation of the fund’s assets.”
Ader singled out the agency’s “primary investments” in 26 Capital Acquisition Corp., a automobile that attempted and failed to purchase the most important on line casino within the Philippines for $2.6 billion; and GameCo, a agency denied a on line casino license by Nevada regulators.
“Both investments were structured as loans, and the circumstances surrounding each have contributed to the complexity of the wind-down,” Ader wrote within the Oct. 15 letter obtained by The Put up. “We anticipate that write-downs are likely.”
That’s after the 56-year-old cash man — who previously had additionally been an occasional visitor on CNBC — was sued in August by his 81-year-old mother after he defaulted on a $13 million mortgage he took out in 2016 in opposition to his late father’s townhouse on New York’s Higher East Aspect, state courtroom filings present.
Regardless of the turmoil, the Spring Owl CEO has been seen over the previous month partying on the swanky Faena Lodge on Miami Seashore, in accordance with two sources briefed on the state of affairs.
The Put up has additionally obtained posts from his now-private Instagram account displaying Ader and his girlfriend Hana on a visit to France this previous summer season. The vacation snaps present the loved-up couple posing on the members-only Monte-Carlo Nation Membership simply outdoors Good and on the Olympics seaside volleyball match on the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Per week later, the pair had been shacked up on the Rosewood Baha Mar resort in Nassau, Bahamas, social media posts present. Different journeys taken over the previous two years embody breaks in Japan, Germany, the Hamptons and a ski trip in Colorado.
“That is the way Jason has always lived his life,” stated one supply near the agency.
The newest luxurious journeys got here a 12 months after a courtroom ruling slapped Ader on the wrist for failing to pay agreed-upon little one help to second spouse, Julie, and their 4 youngsters.
Ader has a $6 million Miami condo at 1000 Biscayne Blvd. — a glass-and-steel residential tower that boasts 84 non-public residences and features a spa, health middle and a rooftop helipad. It’s positioned on the identical block the place English soccer celebrity David Beckham owns a $20 million pad.
His agency’s Florida handle is registered on the upmarket Brickell Avenue within the metropolis’s monetary district. That’s although SpringOwl is not registered with US regulators, in accordance with filings with the Securities and Trade Fee.
The agency continues to be listed with the division of firms within the tax haven state of Delaware.
In an announcement issued by his lawyer, Ader stated that “any suggestion” that Spring Owl is on the rocks is “false.”
“Contrary to recent claims, I am not liquidating my assets or winding down my business ventures,” he stated.
“While we are responsibly managing the wind-down of two specific legacy investments, this is a normal part of our investment cycle and does not reflect broader operations. SpringOwl is actively expanding, pursuing new opportunities in line with our long-term growth strategy.”
In response, Spring Owl traders scoffed. One disgusted shopper lashed out at Ader, griping in a leaked e-mail obtained by The Put up: “A particular place in hell is reserved for liars and crooks. Your conduct is past despicable.
“Has anyone who invested with you received any funds back?” the backer fumed, who demanded to know why Ader’s agency had not but handed over K1 varieties that would enable those that received burned to hunt tax reduction from the IRS.
“I don’t have any confidence in getting my money back. What is the net value after all the lawyers get paid?” one other investor lamented to The Put up in a thinly-veiled reference to Ader’s authorized woes. “This is bulls–t.”
In its final out there public report from September 2021, the corporate claimed to handle some $80 million in belongings and boasted solely final 12 months that it has raised greater than $1 billion in capital since its founding in 2013.
That doc was co-signed by Ader’s enterprise associate Barry Konig, whose title doesn’t seem on the most recent missive. Konig declined to say whether or not he had left the corporate when contacted by The Put up.
The corporate’s chief monetary officer John Lewis left the agency in June of final 12 months, whereas Ader’s co-founder Andrew Wallach departed final December, in accordance with their LinkedIn profiles. Neither of the 2 males responded to The Put up’s a number of requests for remark.
In his mid-October letter to shoppers, Ader blamed a Delaware choose for refusing to order the Philippines deal to shut that now leaves his agency going through large losses.
“The timing and release of these funds remain uncertain due to ongoing legal proceedings,” he wrote within the letter.
Delaware Chancery Court docket Choose Travis Laster dominated in September final 12 months that the transaction couldn’t go forward as a result of he noticed proof of double dealing by Ader and one in all his advisers. The choose dominated that the self-styled funding guru appeared to have used “a dodgy bargain” to “enrich himself.”
One backers of the failed deal for the Okada Manila on line casino, Austrian billionaire Harald McPike, is suing the Spring Owl founder in New York over allegations he pocketed his $25 million funding within the botched buyout.
That case continues to be ongoing, however a courtroom submitting posted on Oct. 4 reveals that Ader denies the allegations made by McPike.
The Put up solely revealed in September that Ader’s mom Pamela accused him of leaving his father’s property on the hook for hundreds of thousands in mortgage funds in addition to lots of of 1000’s of {dollars} in curiosity and unpaid taxes.
Ader, by way of his attorneys in a Sept. 23 courtroom submitting, refused to “either admit or deny” the allegations made by his widowed mom.
Ader’s particular funding automobile, 26 Capital Acquisition Corp, is even being sued by one firm over an allegedly unpaid $140,000 invoice for Japanese translation companies.
A separate case over an unpaid $2 million authorized invoice introduced by attorneys Schulte Roth and Zabel was settled by 26 Capital final 12 months.
Spring Owl’s web site was offline for at the least two weeks with guests being introduced with an error message on its touchdown web page.
The positioning was solely restored after The Put up approached Andrew Lieb, an lawyer representing Ader in a handful of New York courtroom circumstances over the botched funding offers, for remark.
