LIMASSOL district court has ordered an ex employee of a Cyprus-based hedge fund to pay €20,000, and €5,000 in costs after he defied a court order restricting the use of the firms’ data.
Former IKOS Asset Management research manager Vincent Pfister was ordered in June 2010 to give up all intellectual property belonging to the company after he tendered his resignation.
However Pfister failed to follow the order, retaining previously downloaded company software and algorithms on a memory stick, which he then posted from England to his parents in France.
Pfister had also emailed the same data to his personal account before he resigned, but he claimed this was because he occasionally worked remotely and he had since deleted it.
Asked why he did not tell his own lawyer about the memory stick, Pfister said he panicked, but Judge Michaelides remained unpersuaded, expressing disbelief that such a mathematical and practical man as Pfister could display the ‘panic and naiveté’ that he claimed.
“It is not possible that the accused could not remember having possession of the USB stick on which he had downloaded information from IKOS” the judge said.
The ruling is the latest incident in the sensational and bitter feud between IKOS boss Elena Ambrosiadou and her estranged husband (and firm co-founder) Martin Coward, who is said to be setting up another hedge fund in Monaco to rival IKOS.
Pfister claimed that he was a pawn in their feud; Coward did offer Pfister his own lawyer for the case and Pfister also admitted that when he left IKOS he intended to work for Coward.
Ambrosiadou and Coward, once described as “a kind of golden couple” in the quantitative financial analysis world, are now embroiled in a heated dispute that has the makings of a James Bond thriller.
The pair has reportedly lodged around 40 lawsuits against each other in four different countries – not including a pending divorce almost 30 years after they first met in Cambridge.
According to Bloomberg, Ambrosiadou says Coward has no ownership stake in IKOS and no right to its profits, while Coward has said he owns the software that drives IKOS’ investment decisions and is claiming a stake in the firm.
Earlier this year, IKOS made the news after they allegedly hired a spy to go under cover and monitor one of their own employees, following the theft of some confidential company information, software and trade secrets. IKOS denied the allegation but reportedly paid “a substantial” sum to the ex employee.
The company moved to Cyprus in 2006 for its “more benign tax environment” and its proximity to Middle Eastern investors.
The Sunday Times Rich List for 2006 placed Ambrosiadou 295th in the rankings of Britain’s 1,000 richest, and 25th wealthiest woman, while IKOS is Bloomberg’s 4th top performing large hedge fund.
IKOS declined to offer a comment yesterday.
