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Who

An alumnus of Steve Cohen's SAC Capital, Sender is the founder of Exis Capital Management and an obscenely prolific collector of contemporary art.

Backstory

The son of a Brooklyn plumbing supply salesman, Sender started trading as a student at the University of Michigan but didn't make his fortune until the early '90s, when he landed at Steve Cohen's SAC Capital and quickly became the firm's star trader. In 1998, Sender headed out on his own, setting up Exis Capital Management and generating solid double-digit returns during the fund's first few years. Lately Sender has been enjoying more success investing in his own personal art collection than on behalf of his investors. Following losses in 2004 and 2006, several investors withdrew their money from the fund, yet during the same period, Sender saw the value of his art collection increase tenfold. While Exis reportedly once had $1.5 billion under management, the 10-person firm was said to have less than $1 billion in assets at the end of 2007.

Of note

Sender's track record as a hedge fund manager has been relatively undistinguished in recent years, and with less than $1 billion under management, Exis is a minor blip on the radar by current hedge fund standards. The same can't be said for Sender's art collection. Like former boss Steve Cohen, Sender has scooped up millions in contemporary art over the past decade, including works by Matthew Barney, Dan Flavin, Bruce Nauman, Kara Walker, Mike Kelley, Ed Ruscha, Damien Hirst, Keith Haring, Diane Arbus, Kehinde Wiley and Banks Violette. One of the most prolific collectors of work by Richard Prince—he owns more than two dozen pieces—Sender employs a full-time curator, Todd Levin, to maintain his collection of more than 800 works. And he even has a website— sendercollection.com—that documents it all.

Much to the annoyance of gallerists, though, Sender is perfectly happy flipping his pieces to collect a profit. He sold a John Currin painting he purchased for $140,000 from Larry Gagosian for $1.4 million a few years later, and he recorded a $2 million profit selling a Prince painting at a Phillips de Pury & Co. auction in 2006. All told, Sender collected $19 million from three separate Phillips sales in 2006, works that cost him roughly $3 million to acquire. Colleagues in the industry have snarked that he probably needs all the cash he can get his hands on given the recent performance of his fund

Scandal

Along with Cohen's SAC Capital, Exis was a defendant in a lawsuit filed by the Canadian insurance company Fairfax Financial—management accused the funds of conspiring to drive down the company's stock price and Exis employees were accused of dirty tricks, such as sending nasty letters to Fairfax's CEO's pastor. Sender was in the news again in 2006 after his ties to disgraced Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano were revealed. In 1999, Sender had invested $1.1 million to finance films with producer Aaron Russo; after accusing Russo of pocketing the money, Sender hired Pellicano to investigate, paying him $500,000 for his services. (At Pellicano's trial in 2008, Sender claimed that Pellicano had gone as far as to suggest killing Russo.) Yet more embarassment followed his decision to team up with former Goldman Sachs partner Dennis Suskind to acquire the Sag Harbor United Methodist Church for $3 million. Area residents were dismayed by their plan to convert the 19th century historic landmark into a private residence to showcase—what else?—Sender's massive art collection.

Personal

The short (he's 5'4"), long-haired art maven is married to Lenore "Leni" Sender. In May 2007, Sender purchased three apartments at 15 Broad Street for a total of $8.1 million; the 36th floor penthouse is 6,300-square-feet, not including the three terraces. In 2009, he sold his former apartment in SoHo for $3.695 million. He also owns a spread in Sag Harbor and a home in Bel Air. He keeps his sizeable car collection at his Hamptons house, 14 autos in all, including four Land Rovers, two Porsches, two Benzes, and a 1973 Cadillac Eldorado convertible.

No joke

Sender paid $44,000 for Andres Serrano's famously controversial photograph of a crucifix immersed in urine.