(Bloomberg) -- TCW Group Inc. sued former group managing director Jess Ravich for millions of dollars that his “pervasive” sexual misconduct allegedly cost the asset management firm, including its settlement of one of the first major Wall Street #MeToo cases.
According to the suit filed Wednesday night in New York state court, Ravich lied to TCW about his relationships with two women he pushed to have hired at the firm. One of those women, portfolio manager Sara Tirschwell, filed a 2018 suit against TCW, claiming she was fired a week after she complained about sexual harassment by Ravich.
“While at TCW, Ravich secretly had sex with at least two of his subordinates, lied to his colleagues and the board, lied to internal and outside investigators, lied under oath, bribed another TCW employee to lie under oath, misused company funds to maintain his illicit sexual relationships, embroiled TCW in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit arising from his sexual misconduct,” the firm said in its suit.
TCW, which has about $200 billion under management, is asking the court to order Ravich to cover the cost of its litigation with Tirschwell, which the firm settled last year, and also repay all compensation he was paid during the seven years he worked there. According to the suit, Ravich, who was head of alternative products and a member of TCW’s senior executive team, received a nearly $7.5 million bonus in 2017.
Lawyers for Ravich declined to comment on TCW’s suit.
Inappropriate Texts
Tirschwell’s lawsuit received widespread attention as an example of the #MeToo movement spreading to the financial industry. Ravich, a Wharton and Harvard Law School graduate, was previously a high-yield trader at Drexel Burnham Lambert and also held senior positions at Jefferies Financial Group Inc. and Houlihan Lokey Inc. before joining TCW in 2012.
In its Wednesday suit, TCW said Ravich vigorously denied Tirschwell’s allegations that he made frequent unwanted advances and coerced her into a sexual relationship but failed to disclose that he’d sent her inappropriate text messages and visited her apartment. According to TCW, Ravich deleted the texts from his phone as the firm investigated Tirschwell’s allegations.
“It was only when he was later presented with the irrefutable documentary evidence produced by Tirschwell that he started acknowledging these facts in a piecemeal fashion,” TCW said of Ravich. The firm also said Ravich settled individually with Tirschwell without informing TCW.
Additionally, the firm said Ravich’s longtime personal assistant, Jennifer Robles, recently came forward to claim he had coerced her into a sexual relationship for more than a decade, including when they both worked at TCW. According to the suit, Robles claimed Ravich tried to pay her a $750,000 bribe to lie during her deposition in the Tirschwell case.
‘Arrogance, Misogyny and Wealth’
“This evidence demonstrates that Ravich — emboldened by a contemptible cocktail of arrogance, misogyny, and wealth — believed that he could buy or lie his way out of any wrongdoing,” TCW said in its suit.
Ravich sued Robles in October 2023 for stealing $1.8 million from Libra Securities, a firm he founded and that he joined after being fired from TCW. In that lawsuit, Ravich said Robles threatened to make false allegations of misconduct against him unless he paid her $1 million.
After he refused, Robles brought her allegations to TCW, which bought them “hook, line and sinker,” Ravich said. It’s unclear if the allegations Ravich described are the same ones TCW cited in its Wednesday suit.
A lawyer for Robles didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Ravich’s suit against her remains pending in California state court.
Ravich also sued TCW for $62 million in Delaware in October 2023, claiming the firm defamed him by publicizing an internal memo concerning Tirschwell’s allegations. That suit was dismissed earlier this year on the grounds that Ravich’s employment agreement required the claim to be brought in New York, not Delaware.
(Updates with details on previous suit between Ravich and assistant.)
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