TPG Capital yesterday filed suit against Adam Levine (no, not that one), a former spokesman and public affairs exec who now stands accused of leaking confidential firm information to the media (along with various related breaches of fiduciary duty).
The complaint, filed in Texas, alleges that Levine was upset about not getting a promotion, at which point he “made a series of ominous threats against [TPG],” and began secretly accessing from the Firm proprietary and confidential information which… he has begun to illegally disclose to third parties.”
Among those third parties is The New York Times, to which Levine allegedly leaked internal firm emails. A NYT reporter then is said to have forwarded one of those emails to TPG, which claims to have then done a forensic analysis. No other media organization is explicitly named, although it’s no secret to Fortune readers that various TPG documents have been floating around over the past couple of months (to be clear, I have no comment on sourcing for any of those documents — if I have something to tell you on that, I’d be explicit).
I’ve been unable to get comment so far from Levine, but The Wall Street Journal reached his representative, who denied the charges, arguing that Levine “was dismissed because he had alerted TPG senior management to serious issues of noncompliance and defrauding its investors of millions of dollars in fees and expenses… This is a blatant and shameful attempt to discredit a whistleblower.”
Prior to joining TPG, Levine worked at Goldman Sachs (GS) and, before that, served as a White House spokesman under President George W. Bush. He also was a senior producer for MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” program and played a role in the events leading up to the indictment of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, which is referenced in the TPG lawsuit.
You can read the full complaint below:
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