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Offensive Emails Among Businessmen, Donald Trump Jr. Spark Fight in Hedge Fund Case
A judge will decide whether to release unredacted emails that included derogatory remarks about Jews and Mexicans
By Corinne RameyFollow
and James FanelliFollow
Updated June 15, 2023 5:39 pm ET
The Texas financier Gentry Beach has made no secret of having close ties to Donald Trump Jr., serving as a groomsman at his wedding, fundraising for his father and once boasting to a former boss about his friendship with the former president’s eldest son.
Now Beach is seeking to keep the Trump name out of a long and bitter court fight with his former hedge-fund employer, litigation that has spawned a side battle over whether a judge should allow full public access to offensive emails exchanged among a group that included the two men and others who worked at prominent real-estate and financial firms.
For nearly 15 years, Beach has been fighting in New York state court with Touradji Capital Management, after accusing the hedge fund of withholding tens of millions of dollars in pay he says he was owed. In a 2008 complaint, Beach accused founder Paul Touradji of saying he wouldn’t pay the compensation, and of then threatening to kill Beach and ruin his career. Lawyers for Touradji argued that the alleged oral compensation agreement didn’t exist, and that Beach and a co-plaintiff were dishonest and unskilled employees.
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The emails, which include derogatory remarks about Jews and Mexicans, are years old; Beach sent and received them from his Touradji work email account between 2005 and 2008. But they entered the case only recently, introduced during a retrial that took place this year after an earlier $91 million judgment for Beach, who now runs a private-equity firm, and his co-plaintiff was thrown out on appeal.
Gentry Beach and Paul Touradji. Photo: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images; Heidi Gutman/CNBC
The retrial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict on a key issue, meaning the case might be tried for a third time. In the interim, the two sides are fighting over whether the emails, and particularly Trump Jr.’s connection to them, should be a part of the public court record in their entirety. Beach is seeking to have Trump Jr.’s name redacted in case documents.
On Thursday, the judge presiding over the case heard arguments on the issue. Over the course of an hour, no one uttered the Trump name.
A representative for Beach didn’t respond to a request for comment. A representative for Trump Jr. declined to comment. Latham & Watkins, the law firm representing Touradji, declined to comment.
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The emails were part of a new legal defense by the hedge fund, which argued that the messages bolstered its arguments that Beach was disloyal to his employer and exposed the company to reputational harm, and so shouldn’t be compensated.
The fund said the offensive messages could have been seen by financial regulators and potential clients. Other individuals on the email chains worked at major institutions, Touradji lawyers said. “Many of these investors, such as pension funds and publicly traded corporations, are rigorously focused on the integrity of the investment professionals that manage their assets,” they wrote in a January filing.
The fund said Beach “has publicized and touted his connection to Trump Jr.” when it suited him, and argued that the emails were relevant to the case and should be public. Its lawyers, citing court precedent, said, “neither the potential for embarrassment or damage to reputation, nor the general desire for privacy, constitutes good cause to seal court records.”
Beach and Trump Jr. have been friends for decades, having attended the University of Pennsylvania together in the 1990s. Beach has spoken of his access to Trump Jr. while his father was president. While a Touradji employee, Beach told his former boss that his relationship with Trump Jr. opened up attractive investment opportunities, according to court records.
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Beach’s lawyers accused the hedge fund of having improper motives in seeking to make the emails public, and said courts can order the sealing of records when doing so doesn’t implicate substantial public interest.
“The only legitimate purpose for peppering the record with references to the public figure’s name is to prejudice the jury pool for the retrial and to increase risk of reputational harm to Plaintiffs, perhaps to generate settlement leverage,” the lawyers, referring to Trump Jr., wrote in a filing last month.
Thomas Hicks Jr., a onetime Republican National Committee co-chair, at an RNC meeting in California last January. Photo: MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS
At the end of Thursday’s hearing, State Supreme Court Justice Andrea Masley said Beach’s embarrassment wasn’t sufficient reason for scrubbing the Trump name. The judge said jurors in any future trial could fairly weigh the relevant issues. She is expected to issue a written ruling.
Some of the emails were discussed in open court during this year’s retrial, including during the cross-examination of Beach, according to transcripts of the trial.
Beach, who has spoken of having a large collection of guns and knives, wrote emails that made references to hunting Jews and shooting Mexicans. Beach said in court that he had Jewish friends, some of whom were on the emails.
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In one group thread, Beach wrote, “Tomorrow night we’re having jews for dinner. That’s kosher, right?”
In a separate email exchange, about a Beach family move to upper Manhattan, Trump Jr. replied by referring to the area as Harlem. “I hear the theme song of the Jeffersons playing in the background,” he wrote. The content of the email exchange was read in court, according to the transcripts, and Trump Jr. was identified as the sender by lawyers in a separate court filing.
Beach responded, “decent hunting.”
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In another email, Trump Jr. blamed a member of the message group for Mexicans coming to the U.S.
“Encourage the Mexicans to come to the US and give them another excuse to not learn English,” he wrote. “When I have to speak to my grandchildren in Spanish, at least I know I will have you to thank.”
Beach responded by saying that he was going to send his son to the border with ammo. “We’re going to stop this wetback issue dead in its tracks,” he wrote.
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The hedge fund lawyers said Trump Jr. and Beach were among several University of Pennsylvania alumni on the group emails. Another participant was Thomas Hicks Jr., a former Republican National Committee co-chair, who, according to the transcript, made an antisemitic comment about a Jewish real-estate broker who sent pornographic pictures to one group of email recipients. Hicks declined to comment.
“Do you think that’s abhorrent…the context of that comment?” a Touradji lawyer asked Beach while he was on the witness stand.
“I don’t think it seems very nice or appropriate,” he responded.
During the retrial, a lawyer for Beach told jurors the messages were “highly inappropriate, shameful, inexcusable emails,” but said they had no bearing on the compensation that Touradji owed Beach.
“You don’t have to like him to make a decision that he’s owed money,” the lawyer said. “Don’t be manipulated.”
Write to Corinne Ramey at [email protected] and James Fanelli at [email protected]
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Offensive Emails Among Businessmen, Donald Trump Jr. Spark Fight in Hedge Fund Case
A judge will decide whether to release unredacted emails that included derogatory remarks about Jews and Mexicans
By Corinne RameyFollow
and James FanelliFollow
Updated June 15, 2023 5:39 pm ET
The Texas financier Gentry Beach has made no secret of having close ties to Donald Trump Jr., serving as a groomsman at his wedding, fundraising for his father and once boasting to a former boss about his friendship with the former president’s eldest son.
Now Beach is seeking to keep the Trump name out of a long and bitter court fight with his former hedge-fund employer, litigation that has spawned a side battle over whether a judge should allow full public access to offensive emails exchanged among a group that included the two men and others who worked at prominent real-estate and financial firms.
For nearly 15 years, Beach has been fighting in New York state court with Touradji Capital Management, after accusing the hedge fund of withholding tens of millions of dollars in pay he says he was owed. In a 2008 complaint, Beach accused founder Paul Touradji of saying he wouldn’t pay the compensation, and of then threatening to kill Beach and ruin his career. Lawyers for Touradji argued that the alleged oral compensation agreement didn’t exist, and that Beach and a co-plaintiff were dishonest and unskilled employees.
Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
Advertisement
Scroll to continue with content
The emails, which include derogatory remarks about Jews and Mexicans, are years old; Beach sent and received them from his Touradji work email account between 2005 and 2008. But they entered the case only recently, introduced during a retrial that took place this year after an earlier $91 million judgment for Beach, who now runs a private-equity firm, and his co-plaintiff was thrown out on appeal.
Gentry Beach and Paul Touradji. Photo: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images; Heidi Gutman/CNBC
The retrial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict on a key issue, meaning the case might be tried for a third time. In the interim, the two sides are fighting over whether the emails, and particularly Trump Jr.’s connection to them, should be a part of the public court record in their entirety. Beach is seeking to have Trump Jr.’s name redacted in case documents.
On Thursday, the judge presiding over the case heard arguments on the issue. Over the course of an hour, no one uttered the Trump name.
A representative for Beach didn’t respond to a request for comment. A representative for Trump Jr. declined to comment. Latham & Watkins, the law firm representing Touradji, declined to comment.
Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
The emails were part of a new legal defense by the hedge fund, which argued that the messages bolstered its arguments that Beach was disloyal to his employer and exposed the company to reputational harm, and so shouldn’t be compensated.
The fund said the offensive messages could have been seen by financial regulators and potential clients. Other individuals on the email chains worked at major institutions, Touradji lawyers said. “Many of these investors, such as pension funds and publicly traded corporations, are rigorously focused on the integrity of the investment professionals that manage their assets,” they wrote in a January filing.
The fund said Beach “has publicized and touted his connection to Trump Jr.” when it suited him, and argued that the emails were relevant to the case and should be public. Its lawyers, citing court precedent, said, “neither the potential for embarrassment or damage to reputation, nor the general desire for privacy, constitutes good cause to seal court records.”
Beach and Trump Jr. have been friends for decades, having attended the University of Pennsylvania together in the 1990s. Beach has spoken of his access to Trump Jr. while his father was president. While a Touradji employee, Beach told his former boss that his relationship with Trump Jr. opened up attractive investment opportunities, according to court records.
Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
Beach’s lawyers accused the hedge fund of having improper motives in seeking to make the emails public, and said courts can order the sealing of records when doing so doesn’t implicate substantial public interest.
“The only legitimate purpose for peppering the record with references to the public figure’s name is to prejudice the jury pool for the retrial and to increase risk of reputational harm to Plaintiffs, perhaps to generate settlement leverage,” the lawyers, referring to Trump Jr., wrote in a filing last month.
Thomas Hicks Jr., a onetime Republican National Committee co-chair, at an RNC meeting in California last January. Photo: MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS
At the end of Thursday’s hearing, State Supreme Court Justice Andrea Masley said Beach’s embarrassment wasn’t sufficient reason for scrubbing the Trump name. The judge said jurors in any future trial could fairly weigh the relevant issues. She is expected to issue a written ruling.
Some of the emails were discussed in open court during this year’s retrial, including during the cross-examination of Beach, according to transcripts of the trial.
Beach, who has spoken of having a large collection of guns and knives, wrote emails that made references to hunting Jews and shooting Mexicans. Beach said in court that he had Jewish friends, some of whom were on the emails.
Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
In one group thread, Beach wrote, “Tomorrow night we’re having jews for dinner. That’s kosher, right?”
In a separate email exchange, about a Beach family move to upper Manhattan, Trump Jr. replied by referring to the area as Harlem. “I hear the theme song of the Jeffersons playing in the background,” he wrote. The content of the email exchange was read in court, according to the transcripts, and Trump Jr. was identified as the sender by lawyers in a separate court filing.
Beach responded, “decent hunting.”
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WSJ Politics & Policy
Scoops, analysis and insights driving Washington from the WSJ's D.C. bureau.
In another email, Trump Jr. blamed a member of the message group for Mexicans coming to the U.S.
“Encourage the Mexicans to come to the US and give them another excuse to not learn English,” he wrote. “When I have to speak to my grandchildren in Spanish, at least I know I will have you to thank.”
Beach responded by saying that he was going to send his son to the border with ammo. “We’re going to stop this wetback issue dead in its tracks,” he wrote.
Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
The hedge fund lawyers said Trump Jr. and Beach were among several University of Pennsylvania alumni on the group emails. Another participant was Thomas Hicks Jr., a former Republican National Committee co-chair, who, according to the transcript, made an antisemitic comment about a Jewish real-estate broker who sent pornographic pictures to one group of email recipients. Hicks declined to comment.
“Do you think that’s abhorrent…the context of that comment?” a Touradji lawyer asked Beach while he was on the witness stand.
“I don’t think it seems very nice or appropriate,” he responded.
During the retrial, a lawyer for Beach told jurors the messages were “highly inappropriate, shameful, inexcusable emails,” but said they had no bearing on the compensation that Touradji owed Beach.
“You don’t have to like him to make a decision that he’s owed money,” the lawyer said. “Don’t be manipulated.”
Write to Corinne Ramey at [email protected] and James Fanelli at [email protected]
Advertisement - Scroll to Continue
I for one will withhold judgement until authorities determine if this was random, an attack against specific individuals, or an attack on the principle for the celebration. I am curious if you had this same response after last year's July 4 shooting or any of the mass shootings this past Memorial Day. Is there something you're trying to imply?