Australia’s Future Fund Names Ben Samild as New CIO

Ben Samild has been promoted to CIO of Future Fund, Australia’s sovereign wealth fund. He assumes CIO responsibilities from Future Fund CEO Raphael Arndt, who has acted in the role since June 2022.

Ben Samild

Samild is a 10-year veteran of the Future Fund and had been deputy CIO since 2021. In the new position, he will lead the 90-person investment team overseeing more than A$250 billion ($163.9 billion) in investments.

Future Fund Board of Guardians Chair Peter Costello said Samild’s appointment highlights the depth of talent in Future Fund’s investment team and represents continuity in the fund’s long-term focus.

“Ben brings a strong understanding of the Future Fund as a long-term investor,” Costello said in a statement. “He has played an important role in supporting the board’s focus on generating returns while managing risk and I am pleased that he will now step up to lead the investment program.”

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“Globally, inflation remains higher than is desirable and interest rates have continued to rise, while fiscal policy remains accommodative and productivity growth is low,” Costello’s statement continued. “This creates a challenging environment for investors, and in his new role, Ben will work closely with the board to navigate this environment.”

Arndt also commented: “Ben has significantly contributed to the direction and performance of the portfolio and has driven our whole portfolio investment approach. I look forward to our strong investment performance continuing under his leadership.”

Samild said he is honored to take on the challenge of leading the investment team.

“I am very passionate about the role the Future Fund plays and have a great deal of respect and admiration for the people who work here,” he said. “Having spent a significant amount of time leading the research and strategic orientation on the impact of contemporary global challenges to the investment environment, I am very excited to be able to steward the portfolio at this critical juncture.”

Following Samild’s promotion, Future Fund’s head of overlays, Hugh Murray, has been appointed acting deputy CIO for portfolio construction. Alicia Gregory will remain deputy CIO for private markets.

“Alicia and Hugh have both been long-term leaders and excellent contributors to the Future Fund and will provide Ben with just the support he needs to take the investment program forward,” Arndt said in a statement.

This article initially appeared in our sister publication, Financial Standard, which, like CIO, is owned by Institutional Shareholder Services Inc.

Tags: Alicia Gregory, Australia Future Fund, Ben Samild, Hugh Murray, Raphael Arndt

Richard Heart allegedly offered more than $1 billion in unregistered digital securities and stole $12 million in investor funds, according to the SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Richard Schueler, who often used the alias Richard Heart, with securities fraud and offering unregistered securities.

Starting in December 2019, Heart allegedly sold over $1 billion in Hex crypto tokens and misappropriated $12 million in investor funds to purchase luxury goods, such as cars, watches, and the largest cut black diamond on earth for $4.28 million. The Hex tokens were not registered with the SEC, according to the complaint, and were offered over the PulseChain and PulseX platforms.

Heart is an American citizen who was born in Florida but currently resides in Helsinki, Finland, according to the SEC.

Heart told investors in a series of YouTube livestreams that Hex was an easy way to get rich saying “if you want to get rich, [Hex is] built for that,” according to the complaint.

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Heart had a so-called “staking” scheme in which owners of Hex would “lock up” their tokens, or deposit them and waive their right to withdraw them for a period of one day to 15 years. This scheme would reduce the circulation of Hex and, according to Heart, drive up the price, so investors “could earn an average of 38% annual return in the form of additional Hex tokens.”

The Department of Labor allows for recordkeepers and plan sponsors to offer crypto currencies as an option in defined contribution retirement plans. But in a March 2022 notice it did advise using “extreme care” when adding the digital offerings to a retirement plan investment menu.

The July 31 SEC complaint argued that Hex is a security, as opposed to a commodity, and falls under the criteria of the Howey test: “Each of the Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX offerings involved investments of money in common enterprises with the reasonable expectation of profits to be derived based on the efforts of others.”

It has been the view of the SEC and its current chairman, Gary Gensler, that bitcoin is not a security, in part because it is not a “common enterprise” or an investment contract, because of its decentralized character. This complaint describes in detail, by way of explaining the staking scheme, that Hex is a security because it is a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profit, two prongs of the Howey test, and therefore under the jurisdiction of the SEC.

The complaint seeks to ban Heart from offering crypto securities, confiscate the alleged illegally acquired gains, and impose civil penalties.

Gensler has been highlighting his desire to bring the crypto field into compliance during his tenure and has described the industry as “rife with fraud and scams and hucksters.”

The case is SEC v Schueler et al, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 23-05749. Schueler does not yet have representation and could not be reached for comment.

Tags: Cryptocurrency, Gary Gensler, SEC