Harvey Sawikin – Do Your Own Homework

<p><strong>BIO: </strong>Harvey Sawikin is the co-founder and co-manager of Firebird. Launched in early 1994, Firebird’s funds were the first dedicated to the stock markets of Russia and the former Soviet Union.</p><p><strong>STORY:</strong> Harvey invested twice in a bank and a vodka company without due diligence. Instead, he believed that other companies who had invested in those investments had done the job of verifying their viability. Harvey lost huge amounts in both investments.</p><p><strong>LEARNING:</strong> You’ll fail if you rely on someone else’s due diligence and work. The most dangerous time to invest is when it’s the easiest to invest.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><blockquote class="ql-align-center"><strong>“Relying on someone else’s due diligence is a mistake because you never know what’s going on or when stuff starts to go wrong.”</strong></blockquote><blockquote class="ql-align-center">Harvey Sawikin</blockquote><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Guest profile</h2><p><strong>Harvey Sawikin</strong> is the co-founder and co-manager of <a href="https://fbird.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Firebird</a>. Launched starting in early 1994, Firebird’s funds were the first dedicated to the stock markets of Russia and the former Soviet Union. Harvey also co-founded the Amber funds, which do private equity in the Baltic States. Before Firebird, he was an M&amp;A lawyer at Wachtell Lipton after attending Harvard Law School and clerking for a Federal judge. Harvey’s <a href="https://amzn.to/3oZ0bAV" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">novel</a>, about a young lawyer who becomes an inside trader, was published by Simon &amp; Schuster in 1995. He lives in Manhattan with his wife of 32 years and a neurotic 15-year-old cockapoo.</p><h2>Worst investment ever</h2><p>One of the largest banks in Kazakhstan, BTA Bank, approached Harvey’s company with an investment proposal. Another fund in the region had taken a position in it. The bank was supposedly very close with management and had excellent insight into how the comp