In public, Ray Dalio has all of the markings of an icon. He constructed his hedge fund, Bridgewater Buddies, into the most important on the planet; he signed The Giving Pledge; he wrote a ebook about his ideas (name: Rules) that bought hundreds of thousands of copies.New York Instances reporter Rob Copeland is right here to shatter the appearance. On Tuesday, Copeland revealed a brand new biography, The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Buddies, and the Unraveling of a Wall Side road Legend, which attracts on interviews with loads of folks in Dalio’s orbit.Copeland paints Dalio as an egomaniacal cult-of-personality chief with a penchant for cruelty. Underneath Dalio’s reign, he writes, sexual harassment used to be allegedly swept beneath the rug, staff had been capriciously fired, and paranoia inflamed the place of business. A lot of people cried.No marvel, Dalio’s legal professionals attempted to obstruct the ebook’s e-newsletter. “Bridgewater and Dalio employed now not one or two however 3 white-shoe regulation companies to ship a pile of threatening letters to my writer,” Copeland writes. “They threatened a lawsuit that may dangle me and my writer in charge of billions of bucks.”In a commentary posted to his LinkedIn web page, Dalio stated, “The ebook must be taken for what it’s, which is some other a kind of sensational and erroneous tabloid books written to promote books to those who like gossip.“Briefly,” he endured, “the writer implemented for a task at Bridgewater and used to be rejected. He then changed into an investigative reporter at a outstanding newspaper and made a occupation of writing distorted tales about me and Bridgewater… If truth be told, the writer states within the preface that the ebook is stuffed with made-up discussion.”Copeland stated on the finish of the ebook that he had implemented two times for roles at Bridgewater. Within the first example, he used to be very early in his occupation and implemented for a large number of different jobs on the identical time; in the second one example, round two years later, a recruiter reached out to him, however he withdrew from the appliance procedure partway thru. Copeland additionally didn’t say that he had invented discussion. Moderately, he wrote: “In some circumstances, the discussion on this ebook comes without delay from the topic; in others, it’s from others within the room, or folks briefed in a while.”Chatting with The Day-to-day Beast, Copeland known as Dalio’s effort to discredit him a susceptible strive at distracting from “the info of the ebook.”“[Dalio] has been distorting truth in a big manner for years upon years. And everybody round him, together with his best deputies, know that. The folks operating Bridgewater now know that. I have no idea if Ray is aware of it,” he stated.Copeland credit Dalio for his early good fortune, and for posting years of certain returns at Bridgewater: “He known what only a few folks on the time had known, which used to be that it used to be extra tough to inform folks you were not going to lose their cash than it used to be to inform them that you’d lead them to cash,” he stated. Nevertheless, he argued, Dalio has inaccurately situated himself as an all-knowing idea chief with savant-like emotional intelligence. “The true existence Ray Dalio… is sort of absurdly other from the cartoon that he is painted,” he stated.The Fund is a compelling learn, with a surfeit of surprising anecdotes—such a lot in order that Amazon Studios has already obtained the rights, in line with the New York Put up.Beneath are one of the crucial highlights:Dalio had a huge egoOne of Bridgewater’s most renowned peculiarities is a scoring device Dalio applied to fee staffers’ adherence to his ideas (the checklist now comprises “include tricky love” and “be radically clear”). Years in the past, Copeland studies, one of the most staffers tasked with designing tool to measure staff bumped into a topic: two of Dalio’s underlings ranked upper than him in “believability.” The billionaire—who has “when compared himself to the Dalai Lama” and Steve Jobs— reportedly got here up with an answer: He had himself set as the brand new “baseline.”“Dalio’s ranking used to be now numerically bulletproof to unfavorable comments,” Copeland says.Dalio’s ‘radical transparency’ knew no limitsAs a part of Bridgewater’s tradition of transparency, staff had been inspired to fee every others’ efficiency, and they’d record court cases on all kinds of trivial issues, from the bathroom paper within the toilets, to the dimensions of parking passes, to the standard of the peas within the cafeteria.Many conferences had been additionally recorded. In a single anecdote from 2009, Dalio berated an worker for failing to temporarily rent new recruits. “Other folks within the room take note him screaming, looking ahead to her lip to quiver, then screaming at her once more for failing to regulate her feelings,” Copeland writes.Dalio allegedly had a sizzle reel manufactured from her breakdown. He despatched it to each and every particular person on the corporation and made potential task applicants watch it, in line with the ebook. FBI Director James Comey on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC., on March 20, 2017.Joshua Roberts/Reuters James Comey used to be Dalio’s trustworthy lieutenantBefore he changed into director of the FBI—and went face to face with Donald Trump—Comey served as Bridgewater’s basic suggest, with a $7 million wage, Copeland writes. For a time, Comey are compatible proper in. He would examine urgent problems—a minimum of in Dalio’s thoughts—reminiscent of an intensive inquiry into a lady who complained that one in all her coworkers didn’t carry bagels to the place of work “at the agreed-upon day.” Staffers accused of wrongdoing had been placed on trial internally.Paranoia ran prime. “Some staff took out the batteries on their company-issued mobile phones after they had been with circle of relatives or pals,” Copeland studies.In a single case, Comey allegedly collaborated with a Bridgewater government to entrap staff by way of leaving out a binder categorized within the government’s identify and seeing if someone opened it. “Comey watched as a low-ranking Bridgewater worker stumbled upon the binder and started to peruse it,” Copeland writes. The manager and Comey “put the worker on trial, discovered him in charge, and fired him, with Dalio’s approval.” Comey declined to remark.Dalio didn’t welcome scrutinyAround 2017, Bridgewater used to be suffering to generate prime returns, and a few of Dalio’s subordinates believed they’d found out the wrongdoer: their boss. They tested his trades and “funding concepts” and realized that he “used to be unsuitable up to he used to be proper, the ebook says.”When the executives offered their findings, Copeland writes, they sat “nervously looking ahead to Dalio’s reaction.” The result? “Dalio picked up the piece of paper, crumpled it right into a ball, and tossed it.”He wasn’t simply tough at the jobAccording to Copeland, Dalio introduced his “radical transparency” house, as smartly. “On Christmas mornings, when the Dalio sons gave their father a present, the Bridgewater founder would inform them in an instant whether or not it used to be a just right or unhealthy selection,” Copeland writes. “If unhealthy, Dalio would element why it used to be off base.”Some girls allegedly had been burdened on the firmCopeland main points a number of examples the place girls at Bridgewater had been allegedly burdened, groped, or made uncomfortable. In some instances, he writes, Dalio knew in regards to the accusations. He cites an incident from 2012, through which one of the most billionaire’s best executives instructed a extra junior worker to take away her blouse at a company retreat. Either one of them had been married.Later, Copeland writes, the chief claimed the stumble upon used to be consensual. Comey used to be urged to research. He requested the girl “a pointed query,” Copeland writes: “Did you’re feeling you had a decision?” The ladies replied by way of pronouncing she hadn’t been “bodily pressured,” however she additionally didn’t really feel she may have stated no. In keeping with the ebook, “Comey offered his findings to Dalio, who moved to comb the episode apart. Dalio introduced to everybody at Bridgewater that he had investigated the birthday celebration, and that there want be no additional questions.”