Oppenheimer’s Champion Income Fund sank 78.5 percent last year from wrong-way bets tied to commercial mortgages, making it the worst performing taxable high-yield bond fund. Angelo Manioudakis, a portfolio manager who oversaw $16 billion in fixed-income assets, resigned on Dec. 12. Two investors filed complaints yesterday with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority claiming the company misrepresented the fund’s risk. OppenheimerFunds spokeswoman Pisarra declined to comment.
Fielding, who made headlines in 2003 when he donated $10 million to St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, said his compensation will drop about 75 percent after last year’s performance. Oppenheimer, a private company, doesn’t disclose employee compensation, Pisarra said.
He founded a money-management firm in Rochester in 1980. OppenheimerFunds bought that business in 1996, and consolidated the company’s municipal bond fund group under Fielding in 2002. The unit currently manages $22 billion, down from a peak of $35 billion in September, 2007.
Fielding went to worst from first by sticking to his wagers. He bought airport bonds secured with airline company revenue after the Sept. 11 terror attacks and municipal bonds backed by a 1998 settlement with tobacco companies after several lawsuits undermined demand for the debt in 2003.
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