The office of a wealthy oil and gas family in Texas is suing its former chief investment officer, alleging that he made poor investment decisions to benefit himself, and that he lied about his own wealth to secure a multimillion-dollar personal loan from the principal.
Jean Christine Thompson and Thompson Petroleum Corporation, or TPC, the successful upstream company her family started that also serves as their family office, filed a lawsuit on August 19 in a Texas state court against former CIO Michael Mann, the founder and CEO of Anchor Capital GP, a Dallas private-equity and investment advisory firm. Anchor Capital is also a defendant.
Thompson and TPC claim that Mann fraudulently overstated the value of his assets in order to secure a $15 million personal loan from Thompson. According to court documents, the principal and office want the loan money paid back, damages related to Mann’s employment contract, and a declaratory judgment that TPC doesn’t owe Mann any carried interest on any future investment profits.
The Allocator, a newsletter published by With Intelligence, was the first to report on the case this week.
“Over a three-year period, Mann wheedled his way into Thompson’s good graces, and her businesses, by holding himself out as a highly successful and wealthy investment broker…After securing the loan and a lucrative C-suite position with TPC, Mann immediately betrayed Thompson’s trust by committing TPC to numerous ill-advised investments for Mann’s personal benefit and without Thompson’s knowledge or consent,” the complaint states.
Mann joined the family office in January as CIO and was fired less than three months later. During his first month, he made at least five investments on behalf of TPC without Thompson’s written approval, a stipulation of his contract, according to the complaint.
When confronted about the violation of the agreement, Mann allegedly “flew into a rage” and began insulting Thompson, colleagues and TPC verbally and in writing. The CIO’s rants alone qualified as serious employment violations and were grounds for termination, the plaintiffs claim.
After Mann was fired, Thompson’s attorneys began requesting information about $40 million she had invested in Anchor Capital funds managed by Anchor GP and or solely by Mann, as well as his collateral for the personal loan. Mann did not share the information requested, but a document he did share in June pertaining to his personal wealth contained “massive discrepancies” compared to what he presented in January for the $15 million loan. Millions of dollars in real estate, jewelry, cash and other assets were missing, according to the complaint.
Mann still had not shared the requested information about the private-equity funds or additional details about his personal assets with Thompson or TPC when the case was filed.
Lawyers representing Thompson and TPC could not be reached to comment on the case before this newsletter was sent.
Mann has no counsel attached to the case yet and could not be reached when messaged. Mann is aware of the lawsuit against him; a notification was hand-delivered to him on August 20 at a residential property in Dallas.
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