(Bloomberg) — BlackRock Inc. and Owl Rock Capital Corp. must face racial bias claims from a small Black-owned investment firm that alleges they conspired with New Jersey state officials to steal its plan to lower public pension plan costs.
(Bloomberg) — BlackRock Inc. and Owl Rock Capital Corp. must face racial bias claims from a small Black-owned investment firm that alleges they conspired with New Jersey state officials to steal its plan to lower public pension plan costs.
A federal judge on Friday largely denied a motion to dismiss the suit by Blueprint Capital Advisors LLC, which claims it submitted confidential information about its plan to New Jersey’s Division of Investment and an outside consultant in hopes of securing investments from them. Blueprint claims the state took the plan and then partnered with BlackRock and Owl Rock instead.
US District Judge Julien Xavier Neals in Newark said Blueprint had adequately pleaded civil rights and racketeering violations in its 2020 lawsuit alleging it received “disparate terms and treatment” from the state during years of negotiations.
Newark-based Blueprint, which was founded in 2015 by Black investment professionals Jacob Walthour and Carrie Pickett, named in its suit BlackRock, Owl Rock, several state officials including Governor Phil Murphy, New Jersey’s Division of Investment and its outside consultant, Cliffwater LLC.
‘Old-Boy’ Network
Neals dismissed several claims against Murphy and the state on the grounds that they were immune from suit as government officials. He did allow racketeering claims to proceed against the state DOI.
Representatives Owl Rock and the state didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. At the time the suit was filed, BlackRock said it had reviewed Blueprint’s allegations and found no wrongdoing. It said it participated in a competitive process and had no knowledge of any discussions between the New Jersey and Blueprint.
“We continue to believe the lawsuit has no merit and we are confident that we will prevail in this dispute,” said Dominic McMullan, a BlackRock spokesperson, said on Tuesday.
In its suit, Blueprint alleges BlackRock and Owl Rock both benefited from an “old-boy” network within DOI to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in investment from the state using Blueprint’s plan.
BlackRock, which has come under fire from political conservatives for its ESG commitments, was “fully aware of the racist exploitation that was being perpetrated,” Blueprint claims.
Neals said Blueprint sufficiently alleged a racketeering conspiracy by claiming BlackRock and Owl Rock worked with Cliffwater and state officials.
The case is Blueprint Capital Advisors LLC v. State of New Jersey, 20-cv-07663, US District Court, District of New Jersey (Newark).
(Updates with BlackRock comment.)
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