'Unlucky' ex-SAC London traders are off to the Philippines on Friday

For those with short memories, SAC, the beleaguered U.S. hedge fund recently fined $1.8bn for insider trading, is closing its London office before the end of this year. In the process, it will free at least 39 people to go and do something entirely different, like working for Moore Capital Management, BlueCrest, or Balyasny. 

Not all SAC's soon to be ex-employees are rushing to stay in the industry, however. It's come to our attention that Jonas Schwinn and Thibault Nardin, who joined SAC from Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan respectively earlier this year, will be heading to the Philippines to help the victims of Typhoon Haiyan instead.

The two men aim to spend around two weeks there and then to continue raising money from London to help the relief effort. "Given how widely spread the impact of the typhoon was, there is a lot we can do," says Schwinn. "We certainly expect to get involved with helping in the camp for the Haiyan victims in Manila, distributing food packages, distributing other goods such as construction materials and helping to restore destroyed buildings like a primary school in Binon-an."

Schwinn and Nardin's trip is self-funded (they will be paying for their own flights and accommodation), but they are partnering with Lifeline Foundation and aim to raise $25k towards the relief effort, of which they have $5k so far. You can donate here. 

Come the New Year, Schwinn and Nardin will be looking for new jobs in London. "The plan is to stay involved in long/short equity covering financials including banks and insurance companies once we are back (ideally working together at the same fund)," they informed us.