Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital and former chief investment officer of TCW Group, today accused his former employer of “smears and innuendoes” against him in a lawsuit TCW filed, and he promised a countersuit against TCW.
Mr. Gundlach said in a letter distributed to DoubleLine clients and the media that he had been prevented from collecting items from his two offices following his departure from TCW on Dec. 4, calling the salacious allegations in the lawsuit “a transparent attempt to embarrass me and harm my business.” Mr. Gundlach did not indicate in the letter when he would countersue.
The TCW lawsuit, filed Jan. 7 in California Superior Court, accuses Mr. Gundlach and three other senior officers who left TCW for DoubleLine of theft, fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. The lawsuit also alleges that following Mr. Gundlach's departure from TCW, contraband such as marijuana, drug paraphernalia and pornographic videos and magazines were discovered in his office.
“While these actions will no doubt be subjects of litigation, suffice it to say that I had every expectation of privacy in these spaces, which stored vestiges of closed chapters of my life,” Mr. Gundlach said in the letter. “Notwithstanding TCW's scorched earth legal policy, 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 consistent with the innuendos, smears and gross distortions to which TCW has shamelessly subjected me in its lawsuit.”
In the letter, Mr. Gundlach described himself as a loyal and “extraordinarily productive” TCW employee for 24 years.
Mr. Gundlach could not be reached for comment.
“We think Mr. Gundlach's letter and the facts of the complaint speak for themselves,” TCW spokeswoman Erin Freeman said in a telephone interview.