DOJ Unseals Securities-Fraud Complaint Against Hedge Fund Founder Over Alleged Performance Misstatements

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have unsealed a criminal complaint charging Vuk Vukovic, founder of Oraclum Capital LLC and chief executive and chief investment officer of Orca Bason Fund LP, with securities fraud and wire fraud. The case centers on allegations that he overstated the hedge fund’s investment performance when communicating with existing and prospective investors.

Vukovic, 38, was presented on September 10 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer E. Willis, according to federal prosecutors. He faces one count of securities fraud and one count of wire fraud. Each carries a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison, but those maximums do not predict an actual sentence, which would be determined by a judge only if there were a conviction. The government also emphasized that the charges are accusations and that Vukovic is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

In its September 11 announcement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said Oraclum is a New York-based hedge fund manager that operates the Orca Bason Fund. Prosecutors say the fund promoted an investment approach based partly on crowd signals and analysis of social-media networks. The alleged misconduct, however, concerns what investors were told about actual fund performance rather than the investment strategy itself.

Prosecutors focus on statements sent to investors

The complaint alleges that Vukovic had been misrepresenting the Orca Bason Fund’s returns since at least 2024. Prosecutors say he sent monthly account statements to investors showing their investments earning higher returns than the fund actually produced. They also allege that he sent falsified brokerage account statements to a prospective investor that showed a higher net asset value and stronger returns than actually existed.

Those allegations put the accuracy of reported performance at the center of the criminal case. According to the government’s description, the statements were not merely forecasts or promotional estimates. They purported to describe investment results and account values. Prosecutors contend that the allegedly inflated figures were used both to obtain new investor money and to encourage existing investors to keep their capital in the fund.

The Justice Department release does not state a total alleged investor loss, identify how many investors received inaccurate statements, or quantify the gap between the returns reported to investors and the returns prosecutors say were actually achieved. It also does not announce charges against Oraclum Capital or the Orca Bason Fund themselves. The complaint described by prosecutors names Vukovic as the defendant.

The FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service were identified as investigative partners in the case, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office thanked the Securities and Exchange Commission for its assistance. The prosecution is being handled by the office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maggie Lynaugh and Kyle Wirshba assigned to the case.

SEC filing reported $46 million sold to 76 investors

A separate September 2025 Form D amendment filed with the SEC provides background on the fund’s structure and fundraising. The filing identifies Orca Bason Fund LP as a Delaware limited partnership and classifies it as both a pooled investment fund and a hedge fund. It names Vukovic as an executive officer and promoter, as well as manager of the general partner, Oraclum Capital LLC. Oraclum is separately listed as the fund’s general partner.

The filing says the offering relied on Rule 506(c) of Regulation D and that the fund claimed an exclusion under Section 3(c)(1) of the Investment Company Act. It lists February 8, 2023 as the date of first sale and reports a $100,000 minimum investment from an outside investor. As of that amendment, the fund reported 76 investors and $46 million as the total amount sold, with the total offering amount listed as indefinite.

Those Form D figures provide useful scale, but they should not be read as an SEC-verified measure of the fund’s net asset value or as proof of the amount that remained invested when the alleged conduct occurred. The SEC page itself warns that the agency has not necessarily reviewed the filing and has not determined that the information is accurate and complete. The $46 million figure is therefore best understood as the amount the issuer reported as sold in the exempt offering notice.

An earlier Form D filed in December 2022 listed the fund as newly formed that year, reported no investors and no amount sold, and said a first sale had not yet occurred. By the September 2025 amendment, the issuer reported that sales had begun in 2023 and that the offering had expanded to dozens of investors. The criminal allegations announced Friday concern performance representations beginning at least in 2024, not the accuracy of the Form D fundraising figures themselves.

The complaint remains an accusation

The unsealed complaint marks the start of a public criminal case, not a finding that the allegations are true. The Justice Department’s release does not report a guilty plea, conviction or sentencing. It also does not announce a parallel SEC civil enforcement action. The SEC is identified only as an agency that assisted the criminal investigation.

That distinction is important because the government’s core claims still have to be established through the legal process. The prosecution alleges that reported returns and account values were false, but the September 11 announcement does not disclose all of the evidence behind those assertions or provide a complete accounting of investor outcomes. The complaint itself is the charging document described by prosecutors, and the presumption of innocence continues to apply.

Vukovic’s September 10 presentation before Magistrate Judge Willis is the latest procedural event identified in the Justice Department release. The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not announce a next hearing date or trial schedule in its September 11 statement.