They talk value and patience and calm voices on trustee calls – all the bullshit that makes pensions and endowments fall asleep with their hands on a prospectus. Welcome to LSV Asset Management and that quiet tone? That is LSV’s product. It smells tidy. It looks respectable. But underneath the soft-spoken slides and the academic street-cred, the firm allegedly ran a grubby, corporate stitch-up.
This is not about headline-grabbing fraud in neon suits. This is nastier – slow, institutional, and petty. People who helped build the firm say they were shafted – forced into lame sales of their own equity, denied distributions that were theirs, and met with legal muscle when they complained. That’s theft-by-powerplay – not sexy, but it ruins lives and careers and fills lawyers’ pockets. And for all the talk of spreadsheets and disciplined investing, this behaviour smells like plain greed and cowardice.
The $100M suit – partners who wouldn’t go quietly
Four former partners say LSV pressured them into selling equity at bargain levels, then kept cash flow that should have been theirs. The complaint alleges a coordinated scheme – insiders allegedly engineered deals and used corporate process to squeeze out people who had helped build the damn thing.
When they sued, LSV didn’t say “sorry” or “let’s sort this”; it lawyered up. Cease-and-desist letters, motions to dismiss, the lot. That’s a classic move – drown the complaint in legal weight and hope the claimants cough up and go away. Except this time a judge refused to throw the case out. That means discovery is coming – depositions, internal emails, sworn testimony. If you think institutional reputations are bulletproof, watch how fast the polish dulls when paperwork and emails hit the light.
Legal Intimidation – When the law is used as a club
This is the part where the supposedly sober firm flips into corporate cage-fight mode. Send the letters, file the motions, delay, obfuscate, and make the other side bankrupt before the facts get aired. It’s a cheap trick dressed up as legal strategy – and it works more often than it should.
Trouble is, a court letting the suit proceed means the trick has to survive scrutiny. Someone’s going to have to explain who authorised what, who signed which sale, and why distributions that should have gone to ex-partners ended up parked elsewhere. That’s where reputations die in slow motion.
The academic stain – how scholarship turns into cover
LSV lives in the world where academic prestige doubles as marketing. That connection buys trust – until it doesn’t. The Harvard-Russia mess involving Andrei Shleifer is part of the same ecosystem – brainy work turned into private gain while rules got ignored. LSV isn’t the Shleifer show, but share the neighbourhood and the stink clings.
When academics moonlight with cash flows and consulting, conflicts creep in. Money warps incentives. The Shleifer affair is old news, but it matters because it shows how trust and proof can be twisted into cover for dodgy deals. If you’re selling empirical rigor as moral currency, you better be ready to show your own books.
Holdings and hypocrisy
LSV owns serious stock in big names – including our beloved Cummins Inc (CMI). Their positions are material. So while you’re mapping the Cummins ecosystem of suppliers, advisors and investors, LSV is one of the institutional footprints in that mud. That doesn’t mean Cummins is rotten because LSV holds stock – they achieved that all by themselves – and it also means one more respectable-sounding institution in the mix has public, ugly disputes in its recent history. But who cares right? Say something about renewables and nobody will notice.
Big holders matter – they vote, they influence, they show up in settlement notices. If you’re trying to argue systemic hypocrisy around a corporate web, the presence of an institution with partner suits and questionable governance is the kind of detail that sticks.
The real damage
This isn’t flashy. It’s the slow, grinding harm that proves systemic trust is a fragile myth. People who build firms deserve better than to be treated like expendable ledger entries. Trustees who think “institutional equals safe” are wrong. Firms that hide behind academic prestige and legal smoke should not be treated as sanctified.
If the ex-partners win, this will look like justice. If the firm survives on legal technicalities, the exposure itself will be a stain. Either way, the industry gets a reminder – being respectable on paper does not equal being clean in practice. Isn’t that right, Cummins?
Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project
Sources
- Chicago Business – Judge refuses to toss $100M suit against LSV Asset Management
- Procel Levine – Procel Levine defeats LSV Asset Management bid to dismiss $100M lawsuit
- FIN News – LSV Loses Bid To Dismiss Lawsuit From Former Partners
- Trellis / Court Docket – Han Qu et al v LSV Asset Management – complaint and docket summary
- The Harvard Crimson – Harvard To Pay $26.5 Million in HIID Settlement (Shleifer coverage)
- Harvard Magazine – Russia Case (and Dust) Settle
- 13f.info – Q2 2025 13F Holdings – LSV Asset Management
- MarketBeat – LSV Asset Management sells 78,969 shares of Cummins Inc (CMI)
- HedgeFollow – LSV Asset Management 13F Portfolio (top holdings)