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By Shariq Khan
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Citadel has hired veteran U.S. oil and fuel trader Shai Barnea as a portfolio manager for its refined products trading business as the U.S. hedge fund pushes deeper into commodities markets, two sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Barnea had spent over a decade at trading firm Freepoint Commodities, where he was named global head of oil products in 2021, his LinkedIn profile showed. Prior to joining Freepoint in 2012, Barnea traded oil and fuel derivatives for Barclays, it added.
Commodities have been Citadel’s top performing business, delivering record profits in recent years for the hedge fund firm founded by CEO Ken Griffin. Its commodities arm, led by Sebastian Barrack, trades products in oil, natural gas, agricultural and other key markets.
Earlier this year, Citadel acquired privately owned Paloma Natural Gas, adding energy production to its trading portfolio for the first time. It has also recently hired power trader Nic Zhang from Goldman Sachs, a source told Reuters.
Citadel and Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Zhang did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reuters earlier reported that Barnea was among a number of employees to depart Freepoint in recent months. His departure coincided with an ex-Freepoint analyst’s lawsuit alleging that top executives at the firm, including Barnea, pressured employees to break insider trading laws and retaliated against those who objected.
Freepoint has denied those allegations and told Reuters last month that the ex-analyst was fired for performance-related reasons.
Citadel began interviewing Barnea well before the lawsuit was filed, and was comfortable proceeding with his recruitment after it had reviewed the lawsuit, a source familiar with the hiring process told Reuters.
Barnea and Freepoint did not respond to requests for comment.