JPMorgan is not happy with American Century's deal with CIBC. In August the Canadian bank shelled out $848 million to buy the 41 percent stake in American Century that JPMorgan held, and now JPMorgan is attacking American Century in court.

American Century spokesman Chris Doyle confirmed that JPMorgan filed a sealed (i.e. kept secret from the public) complaint in Delaware Chancery Court. The court had JPMorgan refile a public, though redacted, version of the complaint yesterday. Bloomberg's Sophia Pearson reported on the news. According to Bloomberg, JPMorgan claims that American Century "failed to disclose material information regarding the sale," leading to a share purchase that wasn't at "fair market value."

"American Century improperly withheld information regarding the CIBC stock sale from JPMorgan's director designee on American Century's board," JPMorgan reportedly claims in the complaint.

A spokeswoman for JPMorgan declined to comment for this story.

American Century's Doyle hinted that the suit masks another JPMorgan beef with American Century, though he declined to reveal specifics for now.

"The allegation that American Century breached an option agreement with JPMorgan is without merit. The edited complaint filed yesterday in Delaware is inaccurate and incomplete … We're confident that this matter will be resolved in our favor," Doyle told MFWire.com. "We believe JPMorgan filed that Delaware complaint as a tactical reaction to an adverse result JPMorgan suffered in another matter recently concluded in favor of American Century."

Doyle added that American Century does not believe the information redacted from the complaint is confidential.

"The heavily edited complaint removes information that reflects negatively on JPMorgan's conduct in the other matter," Doyle said. "We will soon be taking appropriate action to have the redacted information unsealed." 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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