The biggest US private-equity firms acted like an illegal cartel in rigging the bids on $270 billion in takeovers over three years, a group of shareholders claim.
The explosive claim was made in a court filing yesterday defending the lawsuit brought against KKR, Bain Capital, Blackstone Group and Apollo Global Management along with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase and five others, The Post has learned.
The papers in the suit, which alleges an “over-arching conspiracy,” were filed under seal but sources familiar with the filing described the broadest claims to The Post.
The five-year-old case has survived at least 10 attempts at dismissal — the allegations yesterday are an attempt to fend off one last effort at tossing the suit.
The shareholders in the 14 companies acquired by the PE firms allege the prices paid were fraudulently low because the PE firms conspired to stay out of each other’s deals.
The shareholders have allegedly found e-mails implicating partners at specific firms, sources said.
In a related and separate case, they are also claiming several of the firms colluded in the $32 billion 2006 leveraged buyout of the HCA hospital chain.
The judge is expected to rule this fall whether to proceed and, if he does, would likely schedule a 2013 trial, sources said.