The firm said that the investigation started after concerns about his activity were flagged by an internal whistleblower.

GAM launched an investigation into suspended fixed income absolute return manager Tim Haywood after concerns about his activity were flagged by an internal whistleblower, the firm has said. GAM has seen heavy outflows from the funds since the suspension announcement a few weeks ago, and the firm has imposed a temporary halt to redemptions.

The statement from the group followed a claim by finews.asia, which reported that concerns over Haywood’s trades had been passed to management by a colleague late last year, and were passed to the UK financial watchdog FCA.

The report did not name the individual, who is subject to whistleblower protections, but said the duo worked together for 12 years.

The firm said: “The internal investigation evolved as more facts and circumstances were uncovered and identified a number of potential misconduct issues, the cumulative effect of which led to the decision to suspend Mr Haywood. As previously stated, no other employees are being investigated in relation to these matters and no evidence was found to indicate that such an investigation regarding other employees was required. The internal disciplinary process in respect of the suspended investment director is ongoing. As previously stated, the potential conduct issues identified related to failure to conduct or evidence sufficient due diligence and failure to make accessable internal records of documents in certain instances. Additionally, the investigation concluded that Mr Haywood may have breached the company's signatory policy and may have used his personal email for work purposes. He also breached the company's gifts and entertainment policy.”

The Swiss firm said recently that it would liquidate the Absolute Return Bond range and it would likely be able to return the bulk of client capital in September. It added that between 60 per cent and 87 per cent of affected assets had been returned to clients with a second round of liquidations taking place this week.

Recently, this publication reported that GAM had merged away four bonds' funds on 31 July in order to streamline its fixed income offering.