December 7, 1941. November 22, 1963. December 4, 2009. All dates of such historical and cultural significance that if you asked someone where they were that day, they'd surely be able to tell you. Because they weren't just any old days; they were moments when everything changed. The bombing of Pearl Harbor; the assassination of JFK; and, perhaps most importantly, the firing of Jeffrey Gundlach from the TWC Group, which had taken issue with his decision to start his own firm, and choose to express that anger by first escorting him out of the building and second raiding his offices, where they found an amount of adult films and sexual devices that suggested Gundlach was operating an online wholesale sex shop distributor and keeping the inventory at work. TCW also sued its former employee and at the time, rather than roll over and take it which is something he would never do, Gundlach vowed to fight back and clear up the misconception that TCW was the victim in the situation. On the contrary, JG told people, the real victim was US taxpayers who were "promised" Gundlach's services and had to settled for a subpar bond manager when his relationship with the firm was terminated. Gundlach ultimately emerged victorious* and perhaps even more satisfying to The Pope was the number of TCW employees and clients who followed him en masse to his new company, the aptly named DoubleLine Capital. We're not sure how you celebrated last night's hugely significant anniversary, but we do know how Gundlach did:
According to sources familiar with the bond manager/crime solver/porn collector, Gundlach threw a party for Doubleline employees at a restaurant called Magnolia, which is conveniently located in the lobby of TCW's building in Los Angeles. And by "conveniently" we mean, as we've been told, that it was "deliberately chosen so everybody at TCW would have to walk past them on the way to the garage." As you may have gleaned, the purpose of the party, we're also told, was to "send the message: in your face, TCW," and it sounds as though the message was received! Unfortunately the only other detail we have at the moment is that the party was "long-running," starting "mid-afternoon" and lasting until "god knows how long." Our holiday wish, however, would be for some one to confirm that:
- Waitresses wore tee-shirts with $50 billion emblazoned across the chest
- There was a cake depicting Gundlach teabagging TCW execs**
- This song was blasted all night long
*Gundlach "was found to have breached his fiduciary duty to TCW and misappropriated trade secrets" BUT a jury "awarded the company no damages on the breach claim" and found Gundlach and DoubleLine "didn't act willfully and maliciously in misappropriating trade secrets."
**DOES THIS REALLY SEEM THAT FAR-FETCHED TO YOU??
