Most Charges Dropped in Driving Case Against New Canaan Hedge Fund Manager

The case of the New Canaan hedge fund manager charged last August with reckless driving in his high-end sports car and with disregarding an officer’s signal has been resolved in court with both of those charges being dropped.

Instead, Paul Orwicz of New Canaan, who’s been called a “hotshot” hedge fund manager for his former job with billionaire Steven A. Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management LP, paid a fine on a third charge from that night: improper passing.

Orwicz’ case was then closed late in January in state Superior Court in Norwalk, he said Wednesday in an interview. His case is not now listed on the Connecticut Judicial Branch website, which commonly happens when minor charges are disposed of in court.

Police said Orwicz, who was 46 years old at the time of the incident, passed an unmarked police SUV when both were traveling south on Wahackme Road. The officer in the vehicle then flashed police lights and stopped the McLaren. Orwicz then left the scene before the officer spoke with him, and police went to his home, where Orwicz was arrested.

Although Orwicz was driving his McLaren 12C, which can speed as high as 207 mph, police did not charge him with speeding, and he said he wasn’t speeding at the time.

“This car, which I didn’t know was a police car, was going, I perceived, less than the speed limit,” he said in the interview. He said that at the moment he passed the SUV he didn’t see the double yellow line in the road because the road wasn’t in very good condition.

He stopped his car when he saw the flashing lights, but then he became suspicious that the driver who stopped him wasn’t actually a police officer, Orwicz said. He became concerned when no one left the other car, so he drove off for his own safety, he said.

“With the benefit of hindsight, obviously, it was a cop,” Orwicz said. “I’m not used to police car SUVs, and he didn’t come across with the bull horn. [...] I wasn’t sure it was a cop — obviously that was a mistake, so the whole thing was very embarassing.”

Orwicz, a resident of Ponus Ridge Road, said he sent a letter of apology to New Canaan police for that night’s events.

Orwicz resigned from his job at Cohen’s company, formerly called SAC Capital Advisers LP, and now named Point72 Asset Management LP, shortly after the incident, but for unrelated reasons.

“I’m doing my own investing now, and I’m pretty actively engaged in finding a new opportunity,” he said. “I’m also exploring restarting my own fund.”