Economy

Hollywood Impresario Files Lawsuit Against Goldman Sachs Over $7Bln Deal, Media Reports

MOSCOW,(Sputnik) - US show business impresario Mickey Segal, whose clients have included Madonna and Drake, has filed a lawsuit against the Goldman Sachs investment banking company, accusing it of fraudulently obtaining his business secrets in an attempt to make a $7 billion deal with a private equity firm, the British media reported on Thursday.
Sputnik
The lawsuit, which was filed by Segal last week, mentions the Wall Street bank's role in the purchase of the Focus Financial Partners wealth management firm by New York-based private equity investment firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in February, the report said.
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Segal accused Goldman Sachs of "secretly dealing behind [his] back" by "shop[ping] around" a proposed sale of the Focus Financial Partners, the larger firm, together with NKSFB, his smaller celebrity concierge service, the report said.
Those "interested in acquiring [NKSFB] may be even more interested in acquiring the larger firm," Segal's lawyers were quoted as saying by media.
Segal sold the main economic share in NKSFB, which collaborates with celebrities, to Focus Financial Partners not long the latter made the initial public proposal in 2018. The larger company was planning to separate from its main business of buying shares in wealth management firms and was drawn to NKSFB, the newspaper reported.
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However, in 2022, Segal and his partners announced their decision to separate the firm from Focus and made a deal with Goldman Sachs to carry out the sale of the business, later claiming that they were unaware that the bank was simultaneously developing an agreement to privatize the larger enterprise, the report said.
Goldman Sachs has reportedly rejected all the allegations and called the lawsuit ill-grounded.
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