He wants the satisfaction of a judgment that he was forced from Pimco illegally, forced out in a way that denied him hundreds of millions of dollars he feels he deserved.And he wants to expose the behavior of the members of the "cabal" at Pimco he claims were "driven by a lust for power, greed, and a desire to improve their own financial position and reputation at the expense of investors and decency" in orchestrating his ouster.
The gist of Mr. Gross's legal claims is that he was effectively fired so that company officials could deny him, "for their own benefit," a nine-figure payout from a bonus pool he was five days away from getting and had essentially earned. Mr. Gross also says he was forced out even though Pimco was legally obligated to keep him for many more months or years.
Although the sums Mr. Gross is seeking in damages are staggering, it is clear from the tautly written complaint that this lawsuit is not at its core about money. This is the story of a man who feels that he and the values on which he founded his firm were deeply betrayed. That betrayal, he claims, hit him personally in the form of the loss of position and the denial of millions in compensation. The deeper betrayal that emerges from the complaint is of the "bonds and burgers" values on which Mr. Gross says he built the firm by those who wanted to engage in investment strategies riskier and costlier to the firm's clients.