Barclays' head of global markets offered tragic trader help to get hedge fund job
If you're a trader at Barclays and you want a job with hedge fund Millennium, Adeel Khan, the head of global markets, might be able to give you a hand.
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Documents from the current court case between Kamal Sandhu, Barclays' ex-Head of Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) credit trading and Barclays itself, suggest that Khan offered to help Sandhu get a job with Millennium when he left Barclays in 2023 to look after his very sick two-year-old year-old son.
Sandhu's evidence includes WhatsApp messages sent by Khan stating, "Do you want me to speak to MLP [Millennium Management LLC] re a job[.] Justice Gmelich is their cio[.] I know him well[.]”. Khan says the messages were sent on a personal capacity from his personal phone and that he can't validate them because he's deleted them.
Khan's apparent offer to facilitate Sandhu's reemployment by Millennium comes as the multistrategy hedge fund has been offering huge packages of $100m to lure portfolio managers from rivals. Millennium has made various hires from Barclays, including Cagdas Aksu, the British bank's former head of European rates strategy, in early 2023.
Sandhu was a desirable catch for a hedge fund. He claims to have personally generated profits of $120m for Barclays in 2022, including $30m in a single day. In fact, however, Sandhu didn't join Millennium but rival multistrategy fund Point72. And it was then that his problems began.
When Sandhu left Barclays to help care for his young son, who was ill with a life-threatening genetic condition that meant he suffered epileptic fits and screamed in pain for up to eight hours a day, he took 'career retirement.' In doing so, Sandhu left $3m of unvested deferred remuneration on the table. When he subsequently joined Point72 to help pay his son's $300k medical bills, he didn't get this stock bought out on the understanding that he would still be entitled to it at Point72. Barclays, however, had other ideas.
The current court case hinges on whether Sandhu was entitled to join Point72 under his 'career retirement' agreement, and whether hedge fund jobs and trading jobs in banks are sufficiently similar to be considered the continuation of the same career. Sandhu argues that they're not, and says Khan's private offer to introduce him to Millennium was a tacit admission of this. Barclays argues that they are and says that Khan's private communication with Sandhu is irrelevant to the clauses of his exit agreement.
For the record, a spokesman for Barclays stated: “Mr Sandhu’s case is without merit and Barclays will continue to vigorously defend its position in the current litigation.” It's not necessarily a great look given the sickness of Sandhu's son, but it Sandhu succeeds it will imply that other traders from banks can also join hedge funds with their deferred remuneration intact.
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