Deals
Gooch Trashed BGC Before Selling to Lutnick’s Firm Anyway
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When Michael “Mickey” Gooch relented in February to a hostile takeover, selling GFI Group Inc. to Howard Lutnick’s BGC Partners Inc., he had nothing but praise for his new employer. Documents in a shareholder lawsuit show Gooch had a different view of his rival two months earlier.
“They have committed to committing crimes, money laundering,” Gooch said in a Dec. 11 deposition, explaining why he had spurned BGC’s overtures, according to a transcript filed last week at Manhattan federal court. “Their relationship with their employees is outrageous. They are in constant litigation with their own employees.”