Pimco spokesman Mike Reid declined to comment, while a spokesman for Mr Gross also declined to comment.
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Pimco co-CEO Mohamed El-Erian left the firm in January amid growing clashes with Gross, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Gross, a billionaire, is demanding a jury trial and damages no less than $200 million, according to the 19-page complaint, filed in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Orange.
The complaint alleges Gross was wrongfully pushed out as the bond giant’s chief investment officer by a “cabal” of executives seeking a bigger slice of the bonus pool, but there’s plenty of other meat to chew on in the full complaint.
“Their improper, dishonest, and unethical behavior must now be exposed”, it said. The suit also names Allianz Asset Management of America, a unit of Pimco’s German-based parent company, Allianz. An attorney for Mr Gross said all proceeds from the lawsuit will go to charity, including the Pimco Foundation.
Unknown to PIMCO or Mr. Gross, less than two hours after the meeting adjourned, PIMCO managing director Andrew Balls, who was present for the announcement regarding El- Erian, placed a call to a reporter at the Financial Times, the newspaper for which Balls had previously worked. The Pimco Total Return Fund, which Gross oversaw since inception in 1987 until his departure, now has $US95.5 billion of assets under management, about a third of what it had at its peak.
Mr El-Erian said his own departure, months before Mr Gross left, came after he realised he didn’t spend enough time with his daughter, after the 10-year-old gave him a note citing 22 milestones in her life he had missed.
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The lawsuit ratchets up an exchange of vitriol between Gross, who now runs the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund for Janus Capital Group Inc., and Pimco, which he built into the largest US bond fund complex during his four decades there.
