Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice by Bill Browder
Authors: Bill Browder
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Angeles, Geneva, Chicago, Toronto, New York, the Bahamas, Zurich, Boston. After nearly every meeting I was asked, “Bill, can you manage some money for us in Russia?”
I didn’t have a ready answer. Our desk was set up to manage only the firm’s money at that point and couldn’t take outside capital. “I don’t know,” I said to them. “Let me go back to the bosses and see whether they’ll let us.”
This type of decision wasn’t in Bobby’s domain. He may have been the firm’s best investor, but he had no authority to decide these types of organizational issues. So once I was back in London, I went to the corner office of the head of sales and trading, and pitched him the idea. Unlike my previous experience when nobody wanted toknow anything about Russia, he gave me a much warmer reception. “That’s a great idea, Bill. I like it a lot. I’ll tell you what. We’re going to form a task force to study it.”
A task force! I thought. What the hell? Nothing was ever simple with these people. Here was a golden opportunity staring them right in the face and they had to bring their organizational nonsense into the picture.
I went back to my desk, and ten minutes after I sat down my phone rang with an unidentified outside caller. I picked it up. It was Beny Steinmetz, a charismatic Israeli billionaire whom I’d met on my Salomon world tour. Beny was in his late thirties with intense gray eyes and close-cropped, wiry brown hair. He had inherited the reins of his family’s rough-cut-diamond business, and he was one of Salomon’s biggest private clients.
“Bill, I’ve been thinking a lot about the presentation you made in New York a few weeks ago. I’m in London and I’d like you to come over to the Four Seasons and meet some of my colleagues.”
“When?”
“Now.”
Beny didn’t ask questions, he made demands.
I had some meetings scheduled that afternoon, but they weren’t as important as a billionaire who wanted to invest in Russia, so I canceled them and hopped in a black cab up to Hyde Park Corner. I went into the hotel lounge and found Beny sitting with a group of people who worked for him in his diamond business. He made the introductions. There was Nir from South Africa, Dave from Antwerp, and Moishe from Tel Aviv.
We sat. Beny didn’t waste any time with pleasantries. “Bill, I think we should go into business together.”
I was flattered that someone as wealthy as Beny would react so strongly to my idea, but I looked at him and his diamond-dealer colleagues and thought there was no way I could be business partners with such a motley crew. Before I could say anything, Beny continued, “I’ll put up the first twenty-five million. What do you think?”
That gave me pause. “That sounds interesting. How do you see this business being set up?”
He and his people then launched into a rambling discourse that showed that they knew next to nothing about the asset management business. All they knew was that they had money and wanted more of it. At the end of the meeting, I was simultaneously excited and disappointed.
I walked out of the hotel thinking that this was exactly what I wanted to do, but exactly the type of people that I didn’t want to do it with. I spent the rest of that day and the whole night turning over this dilemma in my head. If I went out on my own, then I would need seed money, but there was no way a partnership with Beny and his guys would get off the ground because they had no asset management experience, and neither did I. Ultimately, I was going to have to turn Beny down.
I called him the next morning and braced myself for the difficult prospect of saying no to a billionaire. “Beny, I’m really tempted by your offer, but unfortunately I can’t accept. I’m sorry, but I need a partner who knows the asset management business. As accomplished as you are, this isn’t your field either. I hope you understand.”
People don’t turn down Beny Steinmetz, and
I didn’t have a ready answer. Our desk was set up to manage only the firm’s money at that point and couldn’t take outside capital. “I don’t know,” I said to them. “Let me go back to the bosses and see whether they’ll let us.”
This type of decision wasn’t in Bobby’s domain. He may have been the firm’s best investor, but he had no authority to decide these types of organizational issues. So once I was back in London, I went to the corner office of the head of sales and trading, and pitched him the idea. Unlike my previous experience when nobody wanted toknow anything about Russia, he gave me a much warmer reception. “That’s a great idea, Bill. I like it a lot. I’ll tell you what. We’re going to form a task force to study it.”
A task force! I thought. What the hell? Nothing was ever simple with these people. Here was a golden opportunity staring them right in the face and they had to bring their organizational nonsense into the picture.
I went back to my desk, and ten minutes after I sat down my phone rang with an unidentified outside caller. I picked it up. It was Beny Steinmetz, a charismatic Israeli billionaire whom I’d met on my Salomon world tour. Beny was in his late thirties with intense gray eyes and close-cropped, wiry brown hair. He had inherited the reins of his family’s rough-cut-diamond business, and he was one of Salomon’s biggest private clients.
“Bill, I’ve been thinking a lot about the presentation you made in New York a few weeks ago. I’m in London and I’d like you to come over to the Four Seasons and meet some of my colleagues.”
“When?”
“Now.”
Beny didn’t ask questions, he made demands.
I had some meetings scheduled that afternoon, but they weren’t as important as a billionaire who wanted to invest in Russia, so I canceled them and hopped in a black cab up to Hyde Park Corner. I went into the hotel lounge and found Beny sitting with a group of people who worked for him in his diamond business. He made the introductions. There was Nir from South Africa, Dave from Antwerp, and Moishe from Tel Aviv.
We sat. Beny didn’t waste any time with pleasantries. “Bill, I think we should go into business together.”
I was flattered that someone as wealthy as Beny would react so strongly to my idea, but I looked at him and his diamond-dealer colleagues and thought there was no way I could be business partners with such a motley crew. Before I could say anything, Beny continued, “I’ll put up the first twenty-five million. What do you think?”
That gave me pause. “That sounds interesting. How do you see this business being set up?”
He and his people then launched into a rambling discourse that showed that they knew next to nothing about the asset management business. All they knew was that they had money and wanted more of it. At the end of the meeting, I was simultaneously excited and disappointed.
I walked out of the hotel thinking that this was exactly what I wanted to do, but exactly the type of people that I didn’t want to do it with. I spent the rest of that day and the whole night turning over this dilemma in my head. If I went out on my own, then I would need seed money, but there was no way a partnership with Beny and his guys would get off the ground because they had no asset management experience, and neither did I. Ultimately, I was going to have to turn Beny down.
I called him the next morning and braced myself for the difficult prospect of saying no to a billionaire. “Beny, I’m really tempted by your offer, but unfortunately I can’t accept. I’m sorry, but I need a partner who knows the asset management business. As accomplished as you are, this isn’t your field either. I hope you understand.”
People don’t turn down Beny Steinmetz, and
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