Vuk Vukovic Arrested in US, Hanfa Details Charges
Croatian economist Vuk Vukovic was arrested in the US over suspected securities fraud. Hanfa cites false reports on returns from the ORCA BASON fund and a Croatian trading ban.
Croatia’s Financial Services Supervisory Agency (Hanfa) announced on Friday, September 11, that authorities in the United States had arrested Vuk Vukovic, one of Croatia’s best known economists, on suspicion of securities fraud and wire fraud. For investors across the region, including in Serbia, the case follows a pattern that keeps repeating: local regulators are increasingly sharing information with US authorities when citizens put money into offshore funds that hold no license to operate in the domestic market, and that is exactly the situation Hanfa describes in its notice about the fund Vukovic ran.
Vukovic is the founder of Oraclum Capital LLC and the chief executive and investment officer of the ORCA BASON Fund. According to Hanfa, he is accused of sending investors monthly reports that overstated the fund’s actual returns, and of providing at least one prospective investor with falsified brokerage statements showing an inflated net asset value and inflated returns.
“Croatia’s Financial Services Supervisory Agency (Hanfa) is informing the public that authorities in the United States have arrested Vuk Vukovic, founder of Oraclum Capital LLC and chief executive and investment officer of the ORCA BASON Fund, on suspicion of committing the criminal offenses of securities fraud and wire fraud.”
That is how Hanfa described the arrest in a notice to investors published on its website, hanfa.hr.
The regulator had been tracking the ORCA BASON case even before the US arrest. In a decision dated July 11, 2025, Hanfa banned the unauthorized provision of investment services tied to the fund, as well as the unauthorized holding of investor funds. In a decision dated December 9, 2025, it barred Oraclum Capital LLC from further trading, distributing or promoting fund units on Croatian territory, and ordered the company to inform investors of their right to a lawful withdrawal of funds. In a decision dated June 1, 2026, it confirmed that the company had complied with the ordered measures, while the bans themselves remained in force to the extent the decisions had set.
“Hanfa notes that during its supervisory activities it identified multiple irregularities related to the offering and distribution of investments in the ORCA BASON Fund.”
Vukovic is also a cofounder of the Glas poduzetnika cooperative, which collected investment orders in Croatia, mostly from small investors, for the ORCA BASON fund and forwarded them to Oraclum Capital LLC for execution, without holding the license that such an investment service requires.
Hanfa has informed US regulatory bodies of its supervisory findings and is directing investors to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. For investors across the region, including Serbia, the case is a reminder that offshore funds marketed through social media and local intermediaries rarely face the same oversight as domestic financial products, which is why checking whether a fund’s home regulator has licensed it remains the first step before any money moves toward it.
“Hanfa is publishing this information to protect investors and to warn of the risks tied to investments offered or distributed in violation of regulations.”
In 2016, Vukovic and his associates founded Oraclum Intelligence Systems, which became known for correctly predicting the outcome of Brexit, Donald Trump’s win in the 2016 US presidential election, and Joe Biden’s win in 2020. He later moved into asset management and founded Oraclum Capital in New York, whose ORCA BASON fund is now at the center of an investigation by US judicial authorities.
Hanfa has not yet said when Vukovic might appear in court in New York, nor is it known whether he has retained a lawyer in the US.
