Jane Street and the secrecy around its co-founder Rob Granieri

Jane Street and the secrecy around the co-founder Bob Granieri

Jane Street is globally in news because of the recent order of Indian market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The 53-year-old co-founder of Jane Street Rob Granieri is also in news because of his alleged role in South Sudan coup. Interestingly, the secrecy around his profile is so much that there are no publicly available photographs of Rob Granieri .

It’s intriguing that a proprietary trading firm, which generated $20.5 billion in net trading revenue in 2024, does not find a mention of its key co-founder in company’s website and there is not even a publicly available photograph. This is in contrast to Jane Street’s presence in global financial hubs. The website of Jane Street mentions, “We have more than 3,000 employees across five global offices. We trade a broad range of asset classes on more than 200 venues in 45 countries”.

Interestingly, Jane Street website says "intellectual humility" is among its core values. It says "staying humble allows us to question our assumptions and to update our views based on new arguments".

Also read: Sebi likely to probe if Jane Street violated index position limits in F&O segment 

Jane Street co-founder Rob Granieri’s role was also highlighted in legal proceedings in US in the Sudan coup. It is alleged that he funded AK-47s, stinger missiles and grenades to topple South Sudan’s government. This, even though Rob Granieri’s side claimed that he was duped as the support was for human right cause and not for any other act. As per reports, $7 million was transferred to one of the conspirators of Sudan coup.

Jane Street’s name also came up in the case of former FTX co-founder  Sam Bankman-Fried as he was earlier employed with the proprietary trading firm.  Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced for 25 years in prison for crypto currency scandal.

In an order dated July 3, Jane Street Group was barred by market regulator Sebi for allegedly manipulating the indices. SEBI had directed impounding Rs 4,843.5 crore of alleged illegal gains and also put a debit freeze on bank accounts even though Jane Street has disputed the allegations of SEBI.

Also Read: There was no Jane Street in Feb but it was volume as usual in F&O segment