Billionaire Ray Dalio once found urine on the office bathroom floor. What he did next

Ray Dalio is a 74-year-old billionaire and founder of Bridgewater Associates.

A new book has exposed the extreme lengths to which hedge fund titan Ray Dalio went in his pursuit of "radical transparency" at his firm after he discovered urine on the floor of the men’s loo at Bridgewater Associates. According to the book, titled "The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend," Dalio became so enraged by a puddle of urine on the bathroom floor that he initiated a full-blown investigation, known internally as the "piss case."

During a fateful day at Bridgewater's Westport, Connecticut office, the 74-year-old billionaire, apparently encountered an unusual and unsanitary situation. He noticed urine on the floor in front of a urinal, a sight that he found "inconceivable that it could be an accident."

Seizing this moment, Dalio implemented his radical transparency philosophy. He promptly emailed the entire 1,000-staff workforce, exclaiming, "There's piss on the floor."

He declared, "If people can't aim their f–king pee, they can't work here." He then proceeded to implement a series of drastic measures to identify the culprit, including assigning staff members to guard the bathroom and making notes of who entered and exited, as well as the state of the floors before and after each visit.

Dalio also ordered the installation of stickers on the urinals to serve as targets for his employees. He even went so far as to examine the exact placement of these stickers. New urinals were even installed for "testing" purposes.

Despite Dalio's pursuit, the identity of the perpetrator remained elusive, and the "piss case" eventually went cold.

However, despite all these measures, the "piss case" remained unresolved, leaving Dalio frustrated and the incident cloaked in mystery. Bridgewater's official statement disputes the book's account, describing the anecdote as "exaggerated to a ridiculous degree and totally false."

Ray Dalio addressed the book in a LinkedIn post, denouncing it as a sensational and inaccurate tabloid book intended to capitalize on gossip. He suggested that Rob Copeland, the author, had ulterior motives, claiming that Copeland applied for a job at Bridgewater and was rejected. According to Dalio, Copeland's subsequent career as an investigative reporter has been characterized by writing distorted stories about him and Bridgewater.