Was Race Card Part Of Hedgie’s Game Plan?

Kirk Wright, the hedge fund manager, who’s been missing in action since February and whose football-playing clients are ready to tackle him in court, may have used a game plan that called for playing the race card,Sports Illustratedsuggests. The magazine notes that, like Wright, founder of Marietta, Ga.-basedInternational Management Associates, all those brawny customers exercising their legal muscle to get their money back are African-American. “Race was a big part of IMA’s image,”Ray Crockett, formerly of theDenver Broncos, toldSI, noting that Wright said he wanted to “be above board because as a successful black company, people were watching.” It seemed to have worked well, as the players, some of whom, like Crockett, are successful investors and business managers, entrusted their money to Wright. In fact, saysSI, Crockett researched IMA and “everything checked out,” or so he thought. TheNational Football League Players Association, which is supposed to protect players against fraud, didn’t help matters, according to the magazine, by giving Wright “a stamp of approval.” Some other minority money managers say the Wright saga may wrongly taint other African-American-run firms. “These events leave the impression that a lot of us aren’t using good business practices,”Ivan Thornton, a black investment adviser to the sports and media industries, toldSI.