MarketsMuse Editor Note: Below extract is courtesy of the HF Industry’s best read publication, FinAlternatives.
Sep 10 2014 | 2:43pm ET
A high-profile hedge fund manager is caught up in a nasty child custody battle in Georgia.
Renee Haugerud, founder of the New York-based commodity-focused hedge fund Galtere, is embroiled in a dispute between her husband, John Murphy, and his ex-wife Michelle Murphy—a dispute that has sparked a social media campaign to “free” the Murphys’ two children.
According to Michelle Murphy, her sons—15-year-old Jack and 13-year-old Thomas—are being “held against their will” by their father at the home he shares with Haugerud on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
to his father and stepmother.
“I am not permitted to contact them,” Michelle Murphy told FINalternatives. “They are being held with no cell phones, no home phones, no internet…cameras in every room, intercoms in every room…. Nobody is allowed to come into the house. They’re being imprisoned.”
The current situation stems from the Murphys’ 2006 divorce, during which Michelle was granted primary custody of the boys and alimony of $1,500 per child per month.
In 2012, John, now married to Haugerud, applied for increased visiting time or primary custody. According to the court filings, John was prompted to act by fears Michelle planned to move from Newnan, Georgia to South Carolina with the children, a move Michelle said she never contemplated. Haugerud told FINalternatives John simply wanted more time with his children.
Michelle’s lawyer, Millard Farmer, said: “When it looked like the judge was going to rule against them and just give Michelle the children…, then John tells the custody evaluator that one of the children told him that the mother was fondling the children, which was an absolute lie.”