
Sears sues former CEO Eddie Lampert for theft of billions from bankrupt retailer - sakopov
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/18/sears-sues-eddie-lampert-steven-mnuchin-others-for-alleged-thefts.html
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jdubz79
Hasn't it been public knowledge for quite some time that he was pilfering
Sears?

[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/yw94vg/why-the-brutal-
dea...](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/yw94vg/why-the-brutal-death-of-irl-
retail-should-scare-everyone)

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knightofmars
Yes. I've been following this for years. Everyone just kept pointing to Amazon
saying, "It's not the CEO it's just the state of retail." In numerous cases
willfully or just naively ignoring what Lampert was doing the whole time.

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basseq
Headline on CNBC is less sensational, and includes "theft" in quotes.

The attribution "Sears" is also interesting, and equates to (I think) "Sears’
unsecured creditors". The claim that "Lampert was the cause of... Sears’
downfall" is a little wild-eyed, considering he "saved the retailer from
complete liquidation" in 2004. In other words, Lampert ran the PE playbook,
stripped Sears of its remaining value, and left creditors holding the bag.

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sct202
He saved his PE investment in Kmart from liquidating by doing a PE buyout of
the original Sears to create Sears Holding.

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musicale
Between Amazon and Walmart, retail is certainly competitive at the moment, but
private equity firms seem to have done their best to run companies like Sears
and Toys R Us into the ground.

