Practice Management Compensation and Fees

PIMCO Accuses Bill Gross of Leaking Confidential Bonus Records

September 14, 2016 at 10:25 AM
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Pimco escalated its court battle with estranged co-founder Bill Gross by claiming he may have destroyed documents and leaked confidential pay information to the media.

Pacific Investment Management Co. made the allegation in California state court in Santa Ana ahead of a Friday hearing on Gross's lawsuit accusing the company of forcing him to resign so it wouldn't have pay him a bonus. Gross is asking a judge to order Pimco to provide him with internal documents he says he needs to prove his case.

"Discovery has revealed that Mr. Gross went so far as to leak confidential Pimco compensation data to the news media after he left the company," Pimco said in the filing Tuesday, "as part of his sad obsession with attacking his former employer and colleagues."

Gross, who left Pimco two years ago to become portfolio manager of Janus's Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, also may have improperly destroyed documents relevant to his lawsuit, according to the filing.

In a document from Gross's lawyer included in the filing, Gross said he provided the bonus information to a Bloomberg reporter. He said that Pimco didn't have a right to take any adverse action against him for disclosing the information.

Gross, 72, last week accused the Newport Beach, California-based asset management firm of "bad faith obstruction" for withholding potential evidence about its investment strategy and its compensation practices. Gross argues that information will support his claims that other management directors wanted his share of the bonus pool after he'd had a falling out with them over Pimco's move into more risky investments.

"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," Gross's attorney Patricia Glaser, said in an e-mailed statement. "The only party trying play 'hide the ball' is Pimco."

Privacy Claim

Pimco has argued that Gross's broad demand for records of all Pimco's interactions with government regulators and every meeting of its most senior executives over the past five years is irrelevant to the narrow employment claims at stake in the lawsuit. The company also claims that disclosing executive compensation files would violate the privacy rights of people not involved in the lawsuit.

Bloomberg reported in November 2014, two months after Gross left the firm, that he received a bonus of about $290 million in 2013. Other bonuses reported for 2013 included $230 million for Mohamed El-Erian, Pimco's then chief executive officer, $70 million for Daniel Ivascyn, who succeeded Gross as chief investment officer, and $45 million for Douglas Hodge, who succeeded El-Erian as CEO. El-Erian is now a Bloomberg View contributor.

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