This is Mr David Weill, a corporate adviser and former derivatives trader. He is also a barrister at the Middle Temple. If he really thinks I have perpetrated a libel, therefore, he ought to have no difficulty in undertaking legal action, rather than blustering on about it and trying to frighten me.
I am not frightfully well acquainted with the ethics of the legal profession, but I am surprised that barristers can write to people threatening them with legal action, and describing them as “a sack of crap”. Is it OK for Mr David De Jongh Weill to call me that in a communication related to proposed legal action? Can I complain to someone who regulates barristers? Any ideas?
Mr David De Jongh Weill was a man ahead of his time in making massive losses from derivatives trading, having been arguably one of the most spectacularly unsuccessful derivatives traders ever.
LORD ROTHSCHILD, one of Britain’s most eminent investors, is about to sever his connections with a Buddhist American investment manager whose $1.2bn hedge funds have embarrassed him by halving in value this year.
The funds, which are being wound down, are managed by David de Jongh Weill from Spencer House, a mansion overlooking St James’s Park that used to belong to the family of the Princess of Wales. Mr Weill’s office is rented from one of Lord Rothschild’s companies.
But Mr Weill’s rich clients have been disappointed this year by a fall of more than $600m in the value of the highly speculative funds, which bet heavily on a fall in interest rates that did not happen.
The Independent 30 January 1994