After being fired on December 4, Jeff Gundlach refused to leave TCW quietly, starting his own firm while plundering nearly 50 portfolio managers, analysts and traders from the company where he had served as chief investment officer. But TCW has not surrendered peacefully, retaliating Thursday. The fund company has now filed suit against Gundlach and his new firm DoubleLine Capital.

Jeffrey Gundlach

To read the rest of the story of the fight between Gundlach and TCW, click here.

TCW is charging Gundlach and DoubleLine with a list of offenses, including breach of fiduciary duty, unfair competition, breach of confidence, threatened and actual misappropriation of trade secrets, intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with with prospective economic advantage, and civil conspiracy. A copy of the suit is available here.

The court document claims that TCW released Gundlach after the firm found “inappropriate contraband” in his offices, “consisting of marijuana, drug paraphernalia... and a collection of 12 sexual devices, 34 hardcore pornographic magazines and 36 hardcore sexually explicit DVDs and videocassettes.” The company also cited a variety of incidents, where Gundlach and "co-conspirators" held secret meetings, threatened other executives, planted stories in the press, and misused the corporate jet.

DoubleLine issued the following statement about the suit: "The allegations in the complaint are meritless and will be proven so in a court of law. TCW's lawsuit is a blatant attempt to damage DoubleLine's business and clients. DoubleLine and Mr. Gundlach are asserting their legal rights in a lawsuit to be filed shortly, which will demonstrate the thoroughly baseless nature of TCW's claims and seek redress for TCW's deplorable conduct. The false and hyperbolic personal attacks by TCW are obviously a gratuitous and irrelevant gutter tactic, which merely underscores the weakness of TCW's claims."

 

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