Miami General Employees and Sanitation Employees Retirement Trust has sued Fidelity National Financial Inc. Chairman William Foley II over the largest U.S. title insurer's $2.7 billion acquisition of a life insurance company connected to him.
Mr. Foley in February pushed for the buyout of FGL Holdings Inc. — in which he was the controlling stockholder — to "improperly enrich himself" at the expense of Fidelity's shareholders, the $738 million Miami-based fund said in a Delaware lawsuit.
"Because the transaction was never conditioned on a stockholder vote, FNF stockholders had zero voice at the ballot box" about the wisdom of the deal, the fund's lawyers said in the Chancery Court suit.
The suit, filed Aug. 4, was unsealed Aug. 7 under the court's public access rules.
"This complaint is wholly without merit," Peter Sadowski, the title insurer's chief legal officer, said in an emailed statement. "Through innuendo and publicity-grabbing turns of a phrase, this suit is a gross distortion of the company's track record under its chairman and a highly talented, independent and experienced board of directors."