David Fishback knows how to be annoying. The 29-year-old former employee of hedge fund Greenlight Capital has been locked in a legal and social media battle with his 55-year-old former boss, David Einhorn, largely over whether he was – or wasn’t – Greenlight’s head of macro trading (Fishback says he was, Einhorn says he wasn’t). However, a new complaint filed yesterday by Greenlight Capital and DME Capital with the district court of the Southern District of New York, suggests there’s a lot more to it.
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Among other things, the new complaint says that Fishback threatened to attend Greenlight’s 2024 Annual Partner Dinner, along with Greenlight’s “investors, counterparties, service providers and employee family members.” When it was pointed out that this wouldn’t be possible, Fishback reportedly threatened to hang around outside talking to attendees and to hand them a “detailed letter” with questions for Einhorn about the firm’s macro investments.
In the event, Fishback didn’t actually do this, but the complaint says the mere threat to do so was a form of harassment and meant Greenlight had to hire additional security for the partner event.
The new complaint also reiterates that from Greenlight’s perspective Fishback was never head of macro and claims that he “had absolutely no discretion whatsoever over what macro investments went into Greenlight’s portfolio, how they were sized or risk managed, when profits were taken or when such positions were to be closed out.” Instead, Greenlight says that Fishback was about to be terminated for poor performance at Greenlight and says he’s been, on a campaign to “harass, intimidate and defame Greenlight and its co-founder, David Einhorn,” ever since.
Greenlight also claims Fishback’s earlier complaint against Greenlight was filed “under false pretences” and accuses him of “seeking to interfere with Greenlight’s relationships including with its customers” and of forwarding himself confidential information. Greenlight claims that he didn’t make the $100m in profits he claims to have made because he had “absolutely no authority or discretion whatsoever over Greenlight’s macro investment portfolio.”
Fishback is unbowed. In a Twitter/X post yesterday, he said his former boss has a “sad life” and that he feels sorry for him. “He used to be a rockstar. Now he spends his days trying to witch-hunt me instead of doing right by his investors.” In an email to eFinancialCareers, Fishback said: “This is a bizarre and desperate attempt by David Einhorn to win back his investors. I’m up 58% this year. David is trailing behind the S&P 500. Why? Because while he’s wasting his time trying to take me out, I’m focused squarely on macro trading and raising millions to launch a groundbreaking ETF called Azoria.” It’s understood that Greenlight was up 11.2% net through to May.
Fishback says he was invited to attend the jazz-infused Greenlight Partner dinner as an investor in the fund, but was asked not to come when he said he was looking forward to it.
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