Robin Hood stops investing in rich

The Robin Hood Foundation, a New York charity, said it would stop investing in its donors’ and board members’ hedge funds, according to published reports. In a letter to donors, David Saltzman, Robin Hood’s executive director, said that his group would remove assets from the hedge funds of those who were connected to the charity so as to avoid “even the appearance of any conflict,” Bloomberg said. The charity’s actions follow criticism and scrutiny from Congress on an emergency fund that grew to $144.5 million by the end of 2005 from about $20 million seven years prior. The charity said that it paid $14 million in management and incentive fees to the hedge funds, Bloomberg said InvestmentNews, July 16 Last week, Mr. Saltzman told Bloomberg that an investment committee that isn’t allowed to invest in its members’ funds had made the decision on where to invest. The rainy-day fund is not an endowment and has been created to comply with the Better Business Bureau, he added. Iowa senator and Senate Finance Committee ranking member Charles Grassley, who had criticized Robin Hood’s investment practices, called the announcement a “positive step,” according to Bloomberg. “Board members should serve to help the public, not themselves,” he said to Bloomberg.