DIMON KIN ON GRILL
$21M oil suit sizzles
Jamie Dimon’s son-in-law may not get off as easily as he hoped in an arbitration case filed against him and the giant buyout firm Apollo Global Management over claims they bilked an oil executive out of $21 million, The Post has learned.
Joey Romeo, who married the JPMorgan boss’ daughter, Julia Dimon, in 2011, is expected to be deposed in the coming weeks, sources said — after his employer, Apollo, initially chalked up the suit to a “disgruntled” employee who was “fired for cause.”
The case was lodged in January with the American Arbitration Association in Pennsylvania by Varun Mishra, who alleged that Romeo and Apollo orchestrated a scheme to stiff him out of his stake in a lucrative oil company he built.
After tapping Mishra’s expertise on natural gas and petroleum to build an energy business, Romeo and other Apollo executives allegedly pushed him out as CEO — a coup that came shortly after Mishra raised questions about millions of dollars that Romeo had ordered be charged to the company’s expense accounts, according to the initial arbitration filing.
Apollo was dismissive of Mishra when he filed suit in January. However, eight months later, the case is going through discovery and Romeo now looks like he will have to sit for a rarely done inquisition.
“Depositions are not typical in arbitration,” said Jay Auslander, a lawyer who represents clients in American Arbitration Association cases but is not involved in this one.
“Arbitrators may permit [depositions] for a whole host of rules,” he added, noting: “I would not read anything nefarious or ominous into this at all.”
According to Mishra’s claim, Apollo executives approached him in 2015 to offer at least $400 million to build out a business that would eventually become American Petroleum Partners. Under the agreement, Mishra, an Indian immigrant, would contribute Pennsylvania wells he’d amassed and serve as CEO on an H1-B visa while Apollo would provide the capital for expansion.
But the next year, Apollo and Romeo axed a deal for APP to acquire a major natural gas fracking firm— only to then scoop up the company through another firm in which some Apollo principals were “likely direct or indirect beneficiaries,” according to arbitration papers.
In addition, Mishra alleged in his lawsuit that he noticed Romeo had been approving expenses for Apollo executives’ limousines and other high-end travel to be paid by American Petroleum, siphoning “multiple millions of dollars” out of Mishra’s business to pad the accounts of Apollo and its affiliates.
“Mr. Mishra’s claims are entirely baseless; he is a disgruntled former employee of a fund portfolio company, who was terminated for cause,” an Apollo spokesperson told The Post on Tuesday.
Romeo did not return call seeking comment.