Pimco Gets More Time to Respond to Lawsuit

Pimco, the Newport Beach-based bond mutual fund giant, and its affiliates have been given an extra week to respond to a civil fraud lawsuit filed by New Jersey securities regulators, officials said Thursday.

Pimco’s response, originally due today, is now due May 7, said Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for the New Jersey attorney general’s office. He said a mutual accord to extend the deadline was reached this week and filed in court Thursday.

It was unclear whether Pimco, its New York-based sister company PEA Capital and other entities owned by German insurer Allianz were in settlement talks with New Jersey regulators, who sued the firms in February alleging that a favored investor, the Canary Capital Partners hedge fund, was allowed to make rapid “market timing” trades to the detriment of other shareholders.

Aseltine declined to comment on the possibility of settlement talks, and Pimco also kept mum. Pimco’s Newport Beach operation, headed by investing guru Bill Gross, has maintained that it did not act improperly and that it is run independently of the stock fund unit PEA Capital, where the timing relationship with Canary originated.