===== July 18, 2020 Zachary Squire, co-founder of Tekmerion Capital Management. (Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg) Early on February 1, 2017, Lawrence Minicone and Zachary Squire officially launched Tekmerion Capital Management, a small systematic macro investment firm backed by former Goldman Sachs partner and Fortress Investment Group principal Michael Novogratz. Two days later, at 4:25 p.m., a senior client advisor at their former employer, Bridgewater Associates, pressed send on an email to the firm’s in-house counsel. The subject line: “New Competitor.” The email contained an attachment — a pitch book from the newly-launched hedge fund — which one of Bridgewater’s clients had sent to that advisor “in confidence,” according to the email. The advisor wrote that they were forwarding the email in case it “wasn’t on [their] radar” that “another ex-Bridgewater employee is setting up a systematic macro hedge fund.” Minutes later, head of investment analytics Kevin Brennan and co-chief investment officer Greg Jensen were looped into the email chain. At 7:10 p.m., Jensen forwarded the email to Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio. Within 15 minutes, the legendary investor had responded. Over the course of the next nine months, Bridgewater employees, Squire, and Minicone repeatedly spoke over the phone and in-person, negotiating over Bridgewater’s concerns that the two had breached the confidentiality agreements laid out in their original employment contracts with the massive hedge fund. During that process, Bridgewater requested access to all of Tekmerion’s models and investment methodologies. But tiny Tekmerion held its ground. And so, in November 2017, Bridgewater began a private arbitration process that has lasted for nearly three years and which recently spilled into public viewthanks to court filings. These filings, to an unusual degree, offer a window into the employment tactics of the world’s largest hedge fund. They, along with interviews with former colleagues, also show the challenges faced by two young ex-employees fighting to start a business despite the protestations of their former employer — a fight that, despite an arbitration court finding that Bridgewater “manufactured false evidence” in order to pursue its claims, continues to this day. ===== continued at https://www.institutionalinvestor.c...io-s-Bridgewater-Says-Stole-Its-Trade-Secrets