Vuk Vukovic, founder of New York hedge fund Oraclum Capital LLC, has been charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan with lying to investors about his fund's performance. The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated that Vukovic began falsifying returns in 2024 for his Orca Bason Fund. The fund had claimed a strategy based on "wisdom of crowds and a network analysis of social media bubbles to predict where markets will end up."
Prosecutors allege that Vukovic provided inflated performance figures to investors and prospective investors. For instance, a prospective investor in June 2025 received statements showing a 38.44% return for 2024, when the actual figure from administrator records was 16.39%. More broadly, overstatements in specific returns were about 10 percentage points higher than actual records. The fund had marketed itself as achieving gross returns of 51% over two years.
The charges unsealed on September 11 carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count. The SEC launched an investigation around September 2025, shortly after the fund filed a Form D disclosing it had raised $46 million from 76 investors. Croatian regulators (Hanfa) had previously banned the distribution of Orca Bason Fund units in Croatia twice in 2025, due to the fund using improper channels to attract retail investors, leading to approximately 3.3 million euros in funds being returned or redirected.
During a search of his premises on September 9, 2026, Vukovic reportedly admitted that some brokerage statements were falsified but denied personally sending them to investors. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer E. Willis on September 10. The alleged fraud involved distributing falsified monthly statements and brokerage records that overstated net asset values to both existing and potential investors.
