Sanctioned ‘Russian Gatsby’ Trust Aided by Wall Street Firms

About six months after founding the New York hedge fund Mantle Ridge in 2016, Chief Executive Officer Paul Hilal flew to Moscow and pitched a potential investment to one of Russia’s richest men.

Suleiman Kerimov, a member of the upper chamber of parliament, had made his fortune buying stakes in Russian companies including in banking, energy and mining. After they met, Hilal wrote in an email to the oligarch’s English-speaking nephew that he had been “impressed” with Kerimov. The Russian senator understood the opportunity “immediately and completely,” Hilal wrote.

Paul Hilal

Photographer: Norm Betts/Bloomberg

By then, Kerimov was known to the bankers who ...