H20 Asset Management faces a potential class action lawsuit by a legal collective platform based in Paris.
The MyLeo.legal platform is encouraging investors to unify and initiate a civil procedure against H20 due to the firm’s suspension of seven funds.
The lawsuit seeks to recover all suspended funds and obtain the reimbursement of investors’ capital supplemented by damages.
The platform stated: “The purpose of the class action will be to recover, through negotiation or an adapted procedure, from the “deep pocket” (H2OAM or BPCE) all the blocked funds plus damages due to the various damages suffered by investors.”
H20’s investment in the Tennor Group caused the firm to suspend seven funds and side-pocketed several funds holding illiquid assets worth €1.6 billion.
Tennor Group is owned by financier Las Windhorst, who has been involved in two personal bankruptcies and one conviction for fraud and breach of trust.
MyLeo.legal claims funds must return to liquidity to prevent investors from facing additional losses related to emerging inflation and periods of uncertainty.
In November, H20’s controversial investment in the Tennor Group caused the firm to be fined €75 million by the French regulator Autorité des Marchés Financiers. The firm’s co-founder Bruno Castes and chief investment officer Vincent Chailley were also fined €15 million and €3 million, respectively.
However, earlier this month, the firm appealed the fines as it argued against the allegation of non-compliance with investment rules.
MyLeo.legal requires a minimum of 500 registered participants to launch its civil procedure on April 30 and allow the action to be self-financed. If this objective is not achieved, the action will not be launched, and the platform will reimburse all participants the €500 entry fee.
H20 Asset Management declined to comment.
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