Bridgewater Associates was close to bringing on Joseph Jimenez, the former chief executive of Novartis, but may back off in the wake of public revelations about his role in payments to President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, people familiar with the matter said, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Jimenez has been thrust into the international spotlight in recent weeks for directing $1.2m to Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, who is under federal investigation. Jimenez was cosignatory to a deal to pay Cohen for advice on health-care policy matters in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, an arrangement that Novartis has since called “a mistake”.