(Bloomberg) -- Neil Woodford, the once-renowned investment manager, rejected criticism around the collapse of his fund empire more than five years ago, fighting back against findings by the UK’s financial watchdog.
“When we reexamine every single thing we did, we just don’t think we did anything wrong,” Woodford told YouTuber Spencer Lodge in a rare interview. “I believe it was the right investment strategy that we pursued at the time.”
Woodford Investment Management imploded in June 2019 in a stunning fall that counts as one of the most dramatic in London’s financial history, trapping thousands of investors and around £3.7 billion ($4.7 billion) in assets. Earlier this year, the Financial Conduct Authority said Woodford had a “defective and unreasonably narrow understanding” of liquidity risks, adding it planned to take enforcement action against him and his defunct firm.
The 64-year-old stock picker said in the interview that he was responsible for his fund’s underperformance but blamed fund administrator Link Fund Solutions and the FCA for the decision to suspend and later liquidate the fund. “I’m angry, it did not need to happen,” Woodford said.
Representatives for the FCA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lawyers representing both Woodford and the firm have said they disagreed with the FCA’s findings, which they called unprecedented and misconceived, and they would challenge them.
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