Pimco Says Bill Gross Has 'Sad Obsession' With Former Firm
15 September 2016 - 5:10AM
Dow Jones News
Pacific Investment Management Co. stepped up its defense against
Bill Gross's breach-of-contract lawsuit, alleging its former star
manager leaked details on Pimco executives' pay and withheld
emails.
Pimco asked a California court Tuesday to force Mr. Gross to
turn over emails sent from a private account Pimco says he had used
to discuss his 2014 Pimco departure with his new employer, Janus
Capital Group. In Pimco's filing, the firm's lawyers also accused
the bond investor of harboring a "sad obsession with attacking his
former employer and colleagues."
"Pimco's latest motion is an effort to deflect blame from its
litigation misconduct by making off-topic insults and baseless
accusations against our client," Patricia Glaser, Mr. Gross's
lawyer, said in a statement Wednesday. "The only party trying to
play 'hide the ball' is Pimco."
Last week, Mr. Gross accused Pimco of gamesmanship over the
scheduling of depositions with key executives at the California
money manager.
The dueling filings escalated the pretrial rhetoric over a legal
tangle between one of the asset-management industry's brightest
stars and the firm he once personified. Mr. Gross abruptly left
Pimco in September 2014 amid simmering tensions with his
colleagues, and last year sued the manager for at least $200
million in damages alleging he was forced out.
Mr. Gross's lawyers wrote last week in court documents that
Pimco had victimized their client twice—first during his ouster and
now "within the lawsuit itself." On Tuesday, Pimco said Mr. Gross's
"misconduct during the discovery phase suggests he did not know
what he was getting himself into."
Pimco's lawyers in their Tuesday filing accused Mr. Gross of
withholding initially the existence of an AOL email account they
had discovered through document requests to Janus. They also
accused him of anonymously mailing to a reporter confidential
information on the 2013 compensation of key Pimco executives,
including chief investment officer Dan Ivascyn, former chief
executive Mohamed El-Erian and CEO Doug Hodge.
Mr. Gross' lawyers responded to Pimco's lawyers earlier this
month by acknowledging he had sent a redacted version of the pay
document to a reporter and shared it with "8-9 Pimco managing
directors" in August or September of 2014, Pimco said in its
filing.
The court is slated to hear from both sides of the suit this
Friday, and the trial is scheduled to begin in August 2017.
Mr. Gross's lawyers argued in a court filing that Pimco had no
right to take action against Mr. Gross for sharing the pay
information, noting his actions were protected by the First
Amendment and the National Labor Relations Act.
Write to Justin Baer at justin.baer@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 14, 2016 14:55 ET (18:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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