Steve Cohen said “personal threats” his family received over the GameStop saga forced him to flee Twitter for the time being.
The new Mets owner explained in a statement on Saturday why his Twitter account, which had shown a little-known playful side of the hedge fund mogul while interacting with fans, was deactivated Friday night.
“I really enjoyed going back and forth with Mets fans on Twitter, which unfortunately was overtaken this week by misinformation unrelated to the Mets that led to our family receiving personal threats,” the statement read. So I’m taking a break for now. We have other ways to listen to your suggestions and remain committed to them.
“I love our team, this community and our fans, who are the best at baseball. The bottom line is, this week’s events in no way affect our resources and drive to put a champion team on the pitch. #LGM! “
The source of Cohen’s wealth, rather than his recent purchase, became the focus of the 64-year-old Twitter account last week, thanks to the GameStop saga of the financial world. Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management and fellow hedge fund Citadel, run by billionaire Ken Griffin, had reportedly invested $ 2.75 billion in Melvin Capital Management together, which was crushed after the attempted short squeeze on GameStop stock. Melvin is run by Cohen’s former protégé Gabe Plotkin.
On Thursday, Cohen took to Twitter with Dave Portnoy after the founder of Barstool Sports trashed the owner of Mets following restrictions placed on trading apps, like Robinhood, that hurt budding investors behind GameStop’s surging stock value.
WFAN morning host Boomer Esiason ripped up Cohen on Friday, saying he would stop attending Mets games “until I know exactly what’s going on here” with Cohen’s involvement in the case.