A Marlborough private investment management firm has sued Bloomberg L.P. for $100 million in damages following an article by Bloomberg Business that stated the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission was investigating the hedge fund.
The lawsuit filed in Worcester Superior Court on Tuesday by Lemelson Capital Management and Emmanuel Lemelson, chief investment officer for the company, was in response to an article published in March by Bloomberg. The lawsuit names the company as well as two Bloomberg employees, Jesse Westbrook, a Bloomberg editor, and Matt Robinson, a Bloomberg reporter.
“After the story was published, a formal request was made to Westbrook to retract; instead of a retraction, Robinson produced a TV segment on the story,” Lemelson said in an email to WBJ. “When Westbrook was contacted again and asked for an opportunity to at least respond to the TV segment, the request was ignored completely.”
The article in question reported in March the SEC was investigating Lemelson for allegedly making false, public statements about companies he was shorting. The article cites anonymous sources saying the inquiry was underway and explains under the law investors cannot knowingly spread false information about a company or its management in order to make a profit.
“We stand by our reporting,” Bloomberg Spokesperson Ty Trippet said in an interview with WBJ.
The lawsuit states the SEC is not undertaking any such investigation of Lemelson or Lemelson Capital Management and that Bloomberg never filed a public records request that would have confirmed this.
