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Vuk Vukovic, the founder and chief investment officer of Oraclum Capital, has been charged with securities fraud and wire fraud by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. The charges, unsealed on September 11, allege that Vukovic systematically lied to investors about his hedge fund’s performance, inflating returns through falsified financial documents.
Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
The numbers that didn’t add up
The Orca Bason Fund, launched in late 2022 under the Oraclum Capital umbrella, marketed itself as a vehicle for high returns driven by a novel approach to social media data. The fund reportedly claimed gross returns of 51% over two years.
According to the complaint, a prospective investor in June 2025 received statements showing a 38.44% return. The actual figure from administrator records was 16.39%. More broadly, the overstatement of specific returns cited in the complaint ran about 10 percentage points higher than what administrators had on file.
Prosecutors allege the fraud dates back to at least 2024, with Vukovic distributing falsified monthly statements and brokerage records that reported inflated net asset values.
A search, a court date, and a partial admission
Federal agents searched Vukovic’s premises on September 9, one day before his initial court appearance. During that search, Vukovic reportedly acknowledged that some brokerage statements had been falsified, though he denied personally sending the doctored documents to investors.
The next day, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer E. Willis presided over his court appearance, where prosecutors laid out the two-count complaint. The SEC launched an investigation around September 2025, shortly after the fund filed a Form D disclosing that it had raised $46 million from 76 investors.
Croatia got there first
Before US prosecutors moved, Croatian regulators had already flagged problems with how the fund was reaching investors. Hanfa, Croatia’s financial services supervisory authority, banned the distribution of Orca Bason Fund units in Croatia twice, once in July 2025 and again in December 2025.
The reason: the fund was using improper channels to attract retail investors. As a result of Hanfa’s actions, approximately 3.3 million euros in funds were returned or redirected.
What this means for hedge fund accountability
Investors received monthly statements that appeared to show strong, consistent returns. Without independent verification, and without access to the administrator’s actual records, there was no obvious way to detect the inflation. The 38.44% figure looked plausible for a fund claiming a 51% two-year track record. The real 16.39% was decent but not spectacular, certainly not the kind of number that would justify the fund’s aggressive marketing.
The SEC’s investigation moved relatively quickly from the September 2025 Form D filing to the September 2026 criminal complaint.
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