Gabriel Plotkin, also commonly known as Gabe Plotkin, is an American entrepreneur and businessman. He is the founder of Melvin Capital Management LP, which basically is a New York City based investment firm. The firm was founded in the year 2014 and has been frequently in the news quite recently. So, what exactly is the deal of this firm by Gabe Plotkin.
Gabriel Plotkin was a normal, middle-class boy from Portland, Maine. He graduated from his hometown’s public high school and he went on to take an undergraduate degree in Economics from Northwestern University. After graduating in 2001, he worked at Ken Griffin’s hedge fund Citadel LLC, and then in a Connecticut-based hedge fund.
He then went on to work as a trader at Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital, where his job was to manage a portfolio of mostly consumer stocks, and its value was about $1.3 billion. According to federal prosecutors, during his service at SAC Capital, Plotkin received some illegal insider information.
PLOTKIN’S INVESTMENT FIRM
In 2014, Plotkin decided to establish his own investment firm, which he named after his late grandfather, who was the owner of a convenience store. During a testimony, he said, “I wanted the firm to represent his values-integrity, hard work, taking care of customers and employees, and commitment to excellence”.
In January 2021, Melvin Capital suffered great losses during the GameStop short squeeze. The firm reportedly sustained losses of 53 percent. Plotkin’s net worth was reduced to half and the company lost 49 percent of all their assets.
After the GameStop short squeeze event, Melvin Capital has many allegations over their heads. Allegations include their participation in a “conspiracy” against retail investors, and also that they “made their misstatements about their role in the conspiracy to the public”.