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The Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed some of the largest Wall Street banks that helped fund trading bets at Situational Awareness before the hedge fund was nearly toppled in the recent tech sell-off.
The US financial markets regulator requested detailed information about Situational Awareness’s trades and its communication with the lenders that provided it with leverage, according to two people familiar with the probe.
The hedge fund was a client of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup and Bank of America, according to regulatory filings. Lending to hedge funds has become an increasingly important and lucrative business line for Wall Street banks in recent years.
The AI-focused hedge fund run by 24-year-old OpenAI alumnus Leopold Aschenbrenner amassed more than $20bn in assets in less than two years and racked up astronomical gains, using borrowed money to amplify its concentrated bets on AI-linked stocks.
Situational Awareness ran into difficulty during the intense tech sell-off in July, becoming the biggest casualty of the market downswing. After facing steep losses, the San Francisco-based firm was forced to sell the majority of its stock holdings to Citadel in an emergency transaction pulled together in just 24 hours.
“It is to be expected that regulators would closely examine any funds that are high-profile, produce significant returns, or have particularly dramatic drawdowns,” Situational Awareness said in a statement. “We are a highly regulated business and will co-operate to the fullest extent with any regulatory request.”
The fund has not been accused of wrongdoing. One person cautioned that the SEC probe was simply in the “information-gathering” stage.
Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan declined to comment. The SEC also declined to comment.
In the aftermath of the deal with Citadel, Aschenbrenner has said he took “full responsibility” for the events that led to the rapid losses. He said the fund would continue to operate and trade public equities but would no longer borrow from banks to fund his bets.
Citadel purchased the positions at a roughly 10 per cent discount, the FT has previously reported. Earlier this month, Ken Griffin’s hedge fund told investors the firm had sold more than 80 per cent of the portfolio via almost 100 block trades worth more than $4bn.
The New York Times first reported the subpoenas.
Additional reporting by Kaye Wiggins
