You've been served

JPMorgan and Varun Bery recently resolved their recent dispute, which had originally seen Bery, founder of TVG Capital Partners and later co-head and MD of JPMorgan's private equity investment arm in Asia Pacific, suing the bank for over $30.8 million. Bery and JPMorgan's joint release stressed "the parties' historically close working relationship in the private equity arena," and that as part of the agreement, "Bery will be a consultant to JPMorgan on matters related to private equity in Asia."

The situation in which a former employee sues a private equity firm on compensation or similar grounds is not uncommon, though perhaps less prevalent in Asia so far than elsewhere. Such cases relate to contract and partnership terms at the general partnership level, rather than the fund level, concerning overall agreements on share of firm economics and entitlements. Bery, for instance, sued on the grounds of alleged lost income and fees, wrongful dismissal and breaches in agreements to spin out his team.

Even less frequent in Asia – at least in private equity circles – and far more common in the US has been the case of a former employee being sued by an ex-employer, especially concerning intellectual property.
Global private equity firm Siguler Guff & Co. just days ago filed a complaint and summons in the Supreme Court of the State of New York against Maria Boyazny, who recently left the firm to found her own investment group, MB Global Partners. The filing alleges that "Boyazny contrived to steal SG's most valuable and commercially sensitive information," including the company's BRIC database, "an extremely valuable piece of intellectual property owned by SG."

Boyazny formed her own firm, MB Global Partners, in October 2010, in partnership with G2 Investment Group, with the formation announcement noting at the time that "Boyazny has been the Portfolio Manager of $4.5 billion in assets across Siguler Guff's Distressed Opportunities Funds I, II, III and IV." According to the SG filing, publicly available on the Supreme Court of the State of New York website, the database included data on performance, cashflows and portfolio composition of all SG's BRIC fund-of-funds investments since these began in 2006. The SG filing alleges that Boyazny never worked for the company on its BRIC investments, amounting to some $1.5 billion, but took information on these investments nonetheless.

The filing further described the BRIC database, containing details on over 400 companies held by the funds in SG portfolios, as the "crown jewels" of SG's intellectual property, and Boyazny's actions as "potentially devastating." SG will seek to compel Boyazny and all acting with her to destroy and certify under oath the destruction of all SG confidential information or material derived from it.

Boyazny's legal counsel gave this statement to AVCJ: "The allegations made against Maria Boyazny by her former employer Siguler Guff, are without foundation or merit and she will take any and all steps necessary to defend herself against them. Throughout her career at Siguler Guff Ms. Boyazny maintained an impeccable track record as a portfolio manager of the Distressed Opportunity Funds which represents over 50% of Siguler Guff's business. During her time with the firm, she was instrumental in delivering top-performing funds to investors and growing assets for funds under her management."

Siguler Guff did not respond to request for comment on the ongoing legal matter.

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• Topics
• Regulation
• North America
• Fund-of-funds
• Siguler Guff & Co.