Pennsylvania candidate David McCormick led Bridgewater, which managed millions in Russian funds, documents show

David McCormick, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Pennsylvania, led the largest hedge fund in the world while it managed and advised funds holding hundreds of millions of dollars in Russian debt, documents obtained by the Guardian show.

Filings with the US Department of Labor, known as form 5500s, show that from 2017 to 2021, Bridgewater Associates managed funds holding as much as $415m in Russian sovereign bonds. Since 2019 these types of investment have been subject to increasingly stringent US sanctions, in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Holding such assets is not illegal, but the question of McCormick’s work with foreign investments and how it might influence his political career has already coloured his current campaign, against the incumbent Democratic senator, Bob Casey.