Robert Mercer, Co-CEO Of Renaissance, Sued By Former Employee Alleging Retaliation Over Trump

Back in February we reported of a striking development taking place at Renaissance, arguably the world"s most successful (and according to many, politically connected and powerful) hedge fund, where one of its key employees, David Magerman, "mutinied" against co-CEO Robert Mercer, the man who together with his daughter Rebekah have been instrumental in getting Trump elected, accusing him of engaging in actions that would harm the future of America.

Following Trump"s election Magerman - a research scientist who worked at the hedge fund for two decades and a registered Democrat who calls himself a centrist, and who had complained to colleagues about Mercer’s role as a prominent booster of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign - started to become more vocal at the office about his disdain for Mercer’s activities, which resulted in this awkward phone call with his boss, as reported by The Wall Street Journal

Magerman says he was in his home office in suburban Philadelphia earlier this month when the phone rang. His boss, hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer, was on the line.“I hear you’re going around saying I’m a white supremacist,” Mr. Mercer said. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Those weren’t my exact words,” Mr. Magerman said he told Mr. Mercer, stammering and then explaining his concerns about Mr. Trump’s policy positions, rhetoric and cabinet choices.

“If what you’re doing is harming the country then you have to stop.”

Following this rather "uncomfortable" phone call with his billionaire boss, as well as the real possibility of getting fired, one would think the democrat would have prudently decided to keep his mouth shut. But Magerman did no such thing. In fact, he ramped up his efforts to show Mercer that he’s not going to stand by and let the politics of Breitbart News ruin the country. There were more phone calls:

Magerman says he first spoke with Mr. Mercer in January, when Mr. Magerman, who donates to local schools, called Mr. Mercer to ask for the opportunity to reach out to Rebekah Mercer to offer the administration help on education policy. During the call, they talked politics, disagreeing about some of the administration’s early steps. After airing his concerns with others at the company, Mr. Magerman received the second call from Mr. Mercer two weeks ago.

The conversation grew strained. After telling Mr. Mercer to stop harming the country, he said Mr. Mercer responded that his goal had been to defeat Mrs. Clinton and that he wouldn’t remain very involved in politics.

“How can you say you’re not involved?” Mr. Magerman said, citing an outside group Rebekah Mercer was involved in that was aimed at boosting Mr. Trump’s agenda.

From that point on, relations between the two Renaissance workers devolved further, and eventually Magerman was suspended without pay in mid-February and could "no longer have contact with the company." That"s when the first WSJ story about the conflict inside Renaissance emerged once Magerman decided to go public. As a reminder, Mercer had emerged as one of the most influential Republican donors in the 2016 election, giving at least $2 million to Make America Number 1, a political action committee that began backing Trump in July. His daughter, Rebekah Mercer, was named to Trump’s transition team in November.

Fast forward to today, when as Bloomberg reports Robert Mercer was sued by Magerman, claiming he was fired for calling Mercer a racist and criticizing his support of Trump. The suit by David Magerman, a research scientist who worked at the hedge fund for two decades, alleges he was wrongfully fired April 29 after his relationship with Mercer and his family became toxic. For example, Magerman alleges that Mercer’s daughter called him “pond scum” at a celebrity poker tournament.

Mercer, a major investor in Breitbart News, advised Trump to hire two of his family’s associates, Stephen Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, according to the complaint filed May 5 in federal court in Pennsylvania. Mercer’s support "tainted" the hedge fund, while internal policies that prohibit "politely" speaking out in public are "unfair and untenable," Magerman said.

Bloomberg then recounts the public details about the deteriorating relationship between Magerman and Mercer, most of which had been previously noted on this site:

The dispute started on Jan. 16 when Magerman called Mercer and asked to have a conversation about his support of Trump, according to the complaint. During the chat, Mercer said the U.S. had started going in the wrong direction “after the passage of the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s,” according to the complaint. Mercer also said that black Americans “were doing fine” in the late 1950s and are the “only racist people remaining in the U.S.,” according to the complaint.

“Magerman was stunned by these comments and pushed back,” according to the complaint. Reminded of the racial segregation that existed at the time, Mercer allegedly responded by saying those issues weren’t important.

After the phone call, Magerman complained about Mercer’s comments to Co-Chief Executive Officer Peter Brown, who "expressed disbelief" and urged the two men to speak again, according to the complaint. Magerman agreed and called Mercer back on Feb. 5. "I hear you’re going around saying I’m a white supremacist," Mercer said, according to the complaint. During the call, Mercer "scoffed" at the idea that segregation was degrading and destructive, Magerman said.

Then there was the famous celebrity poker tournament, previously reported by the WSJ where things only got worse:

On April 20, Magerman attended a celebrity poker tournament in New York City, where many Renaissance staffers were present, according to the suit. Magerman told the Wall Street Journal that he attended the event to repair his frayed relationship with the firm, according to an April 28 article. Rebekah Mercer allegedly confronted Magerman, calling him "pond scum" and saying karma "is a bitch," according to the complaint. Magerman was fired April 29, according to the suit. Magerman seeks "substantial damages," his lawyer said.

Bloomberg notes that while the employee handbook bars workers from disparaging the hedge fund or any of its workers, such policies are "illegal and unenforceable," according to the complaint. It is unclear why one would make that assumption. In any case, one day after the Wall Street Journal article was published, Magerman was suspended without pay, according to the suit.

In light of the implied allegations in the suit, namely that a core employee was terminated due to his opposition for Mercer"s support of Donald Trump, and perhaps more importantly, because it will shed a bright light on what has traditionally been one of the most secretive hedge funds in the world, expect this case to be very closely watched by both market participatants and political commentators. It is also why Renaissance may seek to settle quickly, even if in the process it open itself up to lawsuits by other potentially disgruntled democratic employees.

Full lawsuit below.

The Most Powerful Family You’ve Never Heard Of

(ANTIMEDIA) History is full of powerful families that have left their mark on the political and economic systems of their age. During the Italian Renaissance, there were the Borgias and Medicis. In the United States, a number of families have realized America is not only the land of opportunity but also the land of wealth and dynastic power. We’ve had the Astors and Rockefellers, and even the Rothschilds have a foothold in the American power system.

More recently, the Koch brothers have drawn attention to themselves, and though Charles and David generally try to avoid the spotlight, their fingerprints are all over the political system. Apparently, it’s tough to be the mysterious Wizard of Oz when you’ve bankrolled half the politicians in the Emerald City. Though they’ve historically backed Republicans, the pair has also opposed President Trump. Only last week, when the administration’s Obamacare repeal died before a vote, it was brought down by the Freedom Caucus, a group of congressmen loyal to the Freedom Partners, a political arm of the billionaires.

However, under the Trump administration, a new family is entering the generally cemented world of D.C. power-grabbing. The Mercer family is headed by Robert Mercer, who the New Yorker characterized as “a reclusive Long Island hedge-fund manager, who has become a major force behind the Trump Presidency.” And while Mercer is still a relatively new face on the scene, he’s been building his influence for several years. Like a brilliant chess player, he has been placing his pieces exactly where they can inflict the most damage.

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The Mercer patriarch is constantly described as “a brilliant but reclusive computer scientist.” He made a considerable portion of his wealth as CEO of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies. In their profile of him, The Guardian wrote that Mercer “very rarely speaks in public and never to journalists.” I asked a handful of D.C. contacts, people usually quite willing to talk to me as a journalist, for more information about the family and was met with a wave of the hand or a refusal to go on record — even to be quoted as an anonymous source.

As The Guardian noted, Mercer is a hard man to find, and so “to gauge his beliefs you have to look at where he channels his money.” Last week, the family appeared at a conference in Washington D.C. sponsored by the Heartland Institute, an organization they pumped over $5 million into between 2008 and 2015. It is best known for its efforts to deny climate change. The Washington Post sent reporters to that conference, but unsurprisingly, the Mercers (Robert and his daughter Rebekah) refused interviews.

In their report, the Post noted a number of familiar and prominent faces in the audience, including Myron Ebell, a scientist who has become the go-to man for climate change denial. Ebell even led President Trump’s EPA transition team.

Mercer was influential in putting President Trump in the White House, pumping millions into GOP super PACs. The New Yorker’s profile of him even paints him as a man who endorses the sort of fringe theories that are common on alt-right sites like Infowars or Gateway Pundit. A colleague stated that “Mercer insisted at a staff luncheon that Clinton had participated in a secret drug-running scheme with the C.I.A” (though the C.I.A. has played a role in drug schemes in the past, evidence of this particular theory is shaky at best). In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Trump declared, “The Mercers are incredible people who truly love this country and go all out to protect America and everything it stands for.”

The Mercers’ success arises from the family’s ability to invest their money in the most strategic pockets and come out big. While most Democrats and old school conservatives were busy funding think tanks and pumping their cash into candidates, the Mercers put their money into Breitbart, the news organization that has become synonymous with the Trump presidency. The Wall Street Journal reported that shortly after Steve Bannon met Mercer, “Mr. Bannon drew up a business plan and term sheet under which the Mercer family bought nearly 50% of Breitbart News for $10 million.” Bannon is the former chair of Breitbart news and now a top White House strategist who is widely seen as the most powerful man in Washington.

Despite their hefty backing, Breitbart has struggled to be recognized as a legitimate news organization in Washington DC. Though they have a number of very talented reporters, their top correspondent in the capitol is seen by many traditional journalists as a bad joke. On Monday, Breitbart was passed over for a Congressional press pass, which would have minted them as big league. Politico reported that the reason for the Committee of Correspondents’ denial was “members were not satisfied with the information provided thus far regarding the right-wing website’s connections to the White House and the Republican mega-donor family the Mercers.”

Nevertheless, it seems the Mercer family’s influence in Washington is only beginning. Amid the rise of populism, they have funded all the right players. With their funding of climate change denial, they are eager to see regulations rolled back. Under President Trump, there’s a fair chance that will happen. They put their money behind Breitbart, which is among the most powerful news outlets in the nation and has the ear of the White House. The Washington Post reported that the family had pumped millions into The Media Research Center, which is a right-leaning media watchdog. They’ve contributed to The Federalist Society and The Heritage Foundation — both conservative think tanks with huge influences on politicians. If the family continues to play their hand this well, they’re sure to continue shaking up Washington D.C.

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