Rothschild Aided Czech Billionaire in ‘Fraud,’ Hedge Fund Claims

Financial advisor Rothschild & Co. was sued in the U.S. for allegedly helping the Czech property billionaire Radovan Vitek secretly acquire controlling shares in a real-estate development company in what a New York hedge funds says amounted to a $1 billion fraud.

Rothschild helped Vitek quietly take control of Luxembourg-based Orco Property Group so the billionaire could strip it of its most valuable assets, according to an amended suit filed Nov. 22 in Manhattan by Kingstown Capital Management LP, which says it held a “substantial” stake in Orco.

Radovan Vitek

Photographer: Vladimir Weiss/Bloomberg

Kingstown, which sued in April, said it added Rothschild as ...