BRITAIN’S richest man is worth £14billion but remains shrouded in mystery, with even his own company’s receptionist not knowing who he is.
Despite his immense wealth and influence, Michael Platt, 56, operates largely under the radar.
Tim StewartBritain’s richest man, hedge fund tycoon Michael Platt, is very low-key[/caption]
Tim StewartHe has amassed a fortune of £14billion[/caption]
His company, BlueCrest Capital Management operates as a personal investment for Michael, his senior partners and employees.
Although his name is not widely known, the Preston born billionaire holds the title of Britain’s wealthiest individual.
Michael’s whopping fortune surpasses even the likes of prominent figures such as Sir Jim Ratcliffe and James Dyson, who occupy second and third place in the UK wealth league.
But he is so low-key that even the receptionist stationed at the entrance of his hedge fund’s London headquarters remains unaware of his identity, according to the Daily Mail.
His company, BlueCrest Capital Management, stands out in the hedge fund landscape for its unique approach.
Unlike most hedge funds that cater to external clients, BlueCrest operates as a personal investment vehicle for Michael, his senior partners, and employees.
This unconventional strategy has helped propel him to unimaginable wealth, with his fortune currently estimated at £14.3 billion.
The tycoon’s fondness for privacy is legendary with his last round of interviews dating back over a decade.
Even the company’s website offers little insight into the tycoon, failing to load for curious visitors.
Emails directed towards Platt go unanswered, which further increase his mysterious vibe.
However, occasional glimpses into the billionaire’s world have surfaced over the years.
In a viral video from 2019, Michael was captured boasting about his wealth during a ride in a New York taxi.
Clad in a jacket and dress shirt, he confidently proclaimed himself as the highest-earning individual in the world of finance when asked what he does for a living.
“You’re the highest what?” asked the cabbie.
Platt replied: “I’m the highest-earning person in the world of finance. In the world.”
When Platt and his BlueCrest co-founder William Reeves, a Yale graduate, were interviewed by the Times ahead of the company’s floatation in 2006, they refused to be photographed under any circumstances.
“They guard their privacy fiercely and detest their regular appearances in newspaper rich lists,” financial editor Patrick Hosking wrote.
‘WORLD’S HIGHEST EARNER’
Platt insists the taxi video, which was picked up by the TV networks, was a joke following “a good bottle of wine with a friend”, and says he was only obliging cabbie Manny Anzalota, who is known as the unofficial “cabbie to the stars”.
But it’s not all been plain sailing for the business tycoon.
A year after the taxi bragging video made headlines, BlueCrest was ordered to pay $170 million (£137 million) by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investors, one of the largest penalties imposed on a hedge fund by U.S. authorities.
The SEC investigation concluded that BlueCrest had “repeatedly failed to act” in their best interests by “transferring its highest-performing traders to a fund that benefited its own personnel to the detriment of its fund investors”.
The questionable tactics occurred more than a decade ago when BlueCrest was in the process of converting to a private investment partnership which no longer managed external money.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority made similar allegations, handing out a £40.8 million fine to BlueCrest in 2021 “for conflict of interest failings”, which the company denies and is challenging legally.
BlueCrest was in trouble again last year when the Court of Appeal ruled that its partners should be liable for income tax on a pay scheme dating back to 2008.
For Platt, the publicity was uncomfortable but is unlikely to have caused him any lasting damage, either financially or reputationally.
SMART INVESTOR
Michael first started investing when he was just 14 thanks to the present from his grandmother.
A £500 birthday gift from his gran started the financier’s career – and now he’s worth billions.
Michael, who claims never to have suffered an annual loss, is said to spend a lot of his wealth on art, which he displays in the crypt of a deconsecrated church in Marylebone, central London.
The collection includes a depiction of Christ in an electric chair beside skulls, a selection of stags’ heads, 5bn-year-old meteorites, a depiction of a Japanese woman riding a walrus and the levitation of St John the Baptist.
Other pieces in the collection include works by taxidermist Polly Morgan, the Turner prize-winner Keith Tyson and Reece Jones.
Platt reportedly also owns a Bombardier Challenger private jet and homes in London, Switzerland and the US.
RAPID RISE
Platt won a place at Imperial College London to study civil engineering but switched after a year because he found the course boring, to read mathematics and economics at the London School of Economics.
He made up to £30,000 as an undergraduate investing in the newly privatised utilities but his stock lost half its value in a single day during the crash of October 1987.
Michael Platt says it was one of the few times he has ever been unsuccessful.
After graduating from university, he joined JP Morgan, where he gained a number of rapid promotions before he founded BlueCrest Management in 2000.
The company is now regarded as one of the biggest private investment firms in the world and generated returns as high as 153 per cent in 2022.
Platt also made a brief appearance on the US TV show, Billions, currently showing on Paramount+.
In his private life, Michael’s marriage to Helen Sanderson in 1995 produced two children but would later end in divorce.
Platt’s own son Marcus, who is in his mid-20s, is now following in his father’s footsteps. He recently joined BlueCrest.
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