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The settlement agreement between Jean Christine Thompson, Thompson Petroleum Corporation, Michael Mann, and Anchor Capital. Illustration by Modus.
An inheritor of an oil and gas fortune and her family office in Texas have settled a lawsuit against their former chief investment officer, ending a rare public court battle between the two.
Jean Christine Thompson and Thompson Petroleum Corporation, or TPC, the upstream company that also serves as her family office, claimed in August 2025 in a Texas state court that Michael Mann made poor investments to benefit himself and lied about his own wealth to secure a multimillion-dollar personal loan from the principal.
Mann joined the family office in January 2025 as CIO and was fired less than three months later. Thompson and TPC accused Mann of making at least five investments on their behalf without proper approval and fraudulently overstating the value of his assets to get a $15 million personal loan from Thompson. According to the complaint, Mann “wheedled his way into Thompson’s good graces” and then betrayed her trust once he became CIO and got the loan.
The principal and office sought repayment of the loan, damages related to Mann’s employment contract, and a declaratory judgment that TPC didn’t owe Mann carried interest on any future investment profits.
Mann, the founder and CEO of Anchor Capital GP, a Dallas private-equity and investment advisory firm also named as a defendant, denied the claims.
Less than a week after the complaint was filed, the defense argued in court filings that the claims were untrue, that Thompson and TPC lacked cause to fire Mann, and that he was entitled to the benefits of his employment and investments. “Thompson and TPC’s allegations are baseless, false, and conjured to obtain leverage to keep Thompson from having to honor the commitments she made. Mann’s reputation and livelihood are simply collateral damage to Thompson,” the defendants stated in court documents.
The defense characterized Thompson’s complaint against Mann as another example of her habit of backing out of deals and filing meritless lawsuits: A 2022 Forbes article detailed Thompson’s effort to claw back $200 million in bonuses paid to two former employees (both cases were settled), and a public filing in May 2025 by Xerox said that Thompson wanted to back out of committing to purchase $225 million of unsecured notes and was considering legal recourse (Xerox said in the same 8-K filing that Thompson’s letter had no merit).
The two parties entered a confidential settlement agreement on September 23. The court filing did not disclose the terms of the settlement, but it states that the defendants will make three payments to the plaintiffs: one this month, one in April 2027, and a third in October 2027.
Before hiring Mann to be CIO of TPC, Thompson had already invested more than $40 million in Anchor Capital funds. The parties are still in arbitration over those investments.
The settlement ends a rare public court battle between a single-family office and one of its former employees. Most family offices exist in part to protect their beneficiaries' privacy for personal and security reasons, often by managing businesses, properties and employees through seemingly unrelated entities on their behalf. Regardless of a case's merits, initial court filings, the discovery process, and a trial could reveal information about a person or office they don’t want publicly accessible.
Modus reached out to lawyers representing Thompson and TPC three times this week. They could not be reached to comment before this newsletter was sent.
“The lawsuit has been settled on confidential terms. I’m glad to have this issue resolved and am looking forward to all of the exciting things Anchor Capital is doing. Since its inception seven years ago, Anchor Capital has invested in over 40 companies across multiple funds and just experienced its 10th exit. Anchor Capital’s ecosystem and LP network have never been more robust,” Mann told Modus.
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I’ll be in…
In my home office, ramping back up my reporting and working on the Modus website. (Cool art for the background of video calls coming soon.)
Visiting Akron next week to celebrate my dad’s retirement and my sister’s engagement!
Figuring out how to join my wife on a trip to Seoul. There are direct 16-hour flights from New York…
