Odey Asset Administration has advised shoppers it’s in “lively discussions” with all of its service suppliers because the hedge fund battles to shore up confidence within the group after a Monetary Instances investigation alleged its founder Crispin Odey had sexually assaulted or harassed 13 girls.

Morgan Stanley is transferring to distance itself from the London-based hedge fund, the FT reported on Thursday. JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are additionally reviewing their prime broking relationship with the group. Prime brokers are vital to hedge funds, offering them with credit score to facilitate their buying and selling.

Odey Asset Administration’s chief government Peter Martin mentioned in a press release to shoppers on Thursday that he was “assured that our service suppliers will proceed to work with us to make sure that the pursuits of buyers are protected”.

The try and reassure shoppers comes because the agency faces a widening probe by the UK’s Monetary Conduct Authority, which opened an investigation two years in the past into potential “non-financial misconduct” on the firm.

The inquiry later shifted to give attention to company governance points, after Odey fired his government committee in late 2021 when it tried to self-discipline him for breaking a “ultimate written warning” barring him from behaving inappropriately with feminine workers.

The FCA’s probe might now be widened to research new allegations towards Odey reported within the FT, which revealed that 13 girls alleged that they had been sexually harassed or assaulted by him over the previous 25 years. Two of the incidents occurred in 2021, after Odey was acquitted of a sexual assault cost introduced towards him by a feminine banker in relation to an encounter in 1998. A legislation agency representing Odey mentioned the allegations have been “strenuously disputed”.

Within the assertion to shoppers, Martin mentioned that the “numerous allegations” have been being “regarded into” by the agency’s attorneys and that it “treats, now and up to now, all such allegations extraordinarily critically”.

Crispin Odey on Thursday advised Reuters that Morgan Stanley’s transfer was “a massively fast response to an allegation by the FT”, including that “not one of the allegations have been stood up in a courtroom or an investigation”.

The FCA mentioned it couldn’t touch upon people or particular companies, including: “Nevertheless, we take allegations of non-financial misconduct critically and anticipate companies to have enough governance procedures in place that ensures allegations of misconduct are correctly investigated.”