Gundlach. Photo: Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi
FORTUNE — You meet the nicest people on CNBC. Take, for example, Jeffrey Gundlach.
The last time we wrote about the controversial founder of DoubleLine Capital he was telling a group of investment bankers that he had lost faith in the Apple’s (AAPL) ability to wow customers and was shorting the stock.
“I just wonder how many people will queue up around the block for an iPad 87,” he said. (See Meet the men who carved $96B out of Apple’s market value.)
That was in May 2012, when Apple was trading for just over $540 a share. The next day the stock began a run that took it to over $700.
Gundlach was at it again Thursday, telling CNBC listeners that Apple “is a dead-money stock for quite a while to come, once it settles in around $530.”
For those with short memories, Gundlach was the so-called bond king of Wall Street profiled in
Fortune
after he was fired by his long-time employer, Trust Company of the West, and sued for allegedly stealing proprietary data to start a competing firm.
“The suit added a salacious twist of the knife, perfectly calibrated for maximum media interest ,” Fortune reported. “Gundlach had allegedly stashed a trove of illicit material in his office: 70 pornographic magazines and videos, 12 ‘sexual devices,’ and several bags of marijuana.” — From Firing the $70 billion man.
The juiciest evidence — including reports of alleged sexual liaisons with former co-workers — was ruled inadmissible in the high-profile trial and the two sides settled out of court.
Gundlach made headlines again in September 2012 when his Santa Monica home was burglarized. The thieves made off with a Piet Mondrian, a Jasper Johns and a 2010 red Porsche Carrera 4S. The paintings were recovered after Gunlach posted a record $1 million reward for the Mondrian. The Porsche is still missing.
