Jeffrey Gundlach denounces legal attack by TCW
Fired TCW Group investment chief Jeffrey Gundlach struck back at the Los Angeles money management firm Monday after it filed a lawsuit accusing him of stealing proprietary information and being unfit for his former post.
Less than two weeks after TCW dismissed him Dec. 4, Gundlach launched rival DoubleLine Capital with about 40 former TCW employees who bolted after he was ousted.
In a letter to clients and potential clients, Gundlach denounced TCW’s “scorched-earth legal policy.”
The letter’s main purpose appears to be to confront TCW’s allegations that after ousting Gundlach it found hard-core pornography, “sexual devices,” marijuana and drug paraphernalia in his offices in downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica.
Gundlach said the offices “stored vestiges of closed chapters of my life.”
“The salacious disclosure . . . of certain items apparently taken from there is a transparent attempt to embarrass me and harm my business,” he wrote.
He added: “I am certain that no employee of TCW, past or present, friend or foe, can honestly say that they ever had any experience with me, either in the office, on the road or in any meeting, in which there was any improper activity.”
The letter doesn’t address the suit’s allegations of theft of trade secrets, breach of fiduciary duty and conspiracy.
A TCW spokeswoman said, “We think Mr. Gundlach’s letter and the facts of the complaint speak for themselves.”
