Apollo Global Management Inc. resolved a lawsuit against two former executives of insurance unit Athene Holding Ltd. just days before the matter was set to go to trial.
In a Wednesday filing in New York state court, the private equity giant said it had reached a settlement with Stephen Cernich and Huan Tseng, whom it accused of participating in a scheme to launch a rival insurer. A jury trial in the 2020 lawsuit was set to begin on Monday, and Apollo Chief Executive Officer Marc Rowan had been expected to testify.
According to the suit, Cernich and Tseng worked with former Apollo senior partner Imran Siddiqui and principal Ming Dang to launch an Athene competitor called Caldera Holdings Ltd. Apollo previously won $1.2 million in an arbitration against Siddiqui and Dang.
Apollo had been seeking at least $30 million in damages from Cernich and Tseng. A lawyer for the two men didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the settlement. Apollo declined to comment.
The dispute centered on what has become one of Apollo’s biggest businesses. The creation of Athene, a insurance giant with some $400 billion under management, as of June, is one of Rowan’s most significant achievements since he became Apollo’s CEO in 2021. Apollo’s assets have surged to around $840 billion since Rowan took the reins.
Siddiqui, who departed Apollo in June 2017 after spearheading deals that fueled Athene’s expansion, launched Caldera a few months later. Apollo soon sued him, claiming he violated his non-compete agreements. Siddiqui responded with his own suit claiming Apollo was trying to hurt Caldera, which he claimed had been on track to raise $3 billion.
Cernich was Athene’s executive vice president of corporate development and chief actuary before he resigned in 2016. Tseng was vice president of reinsurance. Apollo claimed the two helped Siddiqui and Dang conceal thefts of confidential information from their employer.
In court filings, Cernich and Tseng argued that Apollo was pushing forward with the suit against them because it was disappointed by the relatively paltry arbitration award. Apollo had originally sought around $300 million from Siddiqui and Dang.
The arbitration followed an Apollo settlement with Siddiqui in which the firm said he agreed to forfeit stakes in Apollo funds worth around $15 million. Apollo said it brought another arbitration after it found out Caldera was competing against Athene for an acquisition.
Caldera no longer appears to be operating, but Siddiqui was named interim president of Sixth Street Partners’ Talcott Financial Group insurance unit in June 2022 and became chief executive officer in October 2023.
The case is Apollo Global Management Inc. v. Cernich, 653234/2020, New York State Supreme Court, New York County.
Photo: Paul Yeung/Bloomberg
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