NEWARK, NJ– Blueprint Capital Advisors (Blueprint), the only Black asset manager in the state of New Jersey, announced today that attorneys Michael J. Bowe of Brown Rudnick and Jay Sekulow of Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group (CLAG) have joined the legal team for Blueprint’s lawsuit against New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s Department of the Treasury, Division of Investment (DOI), BlackRock Alternative Advisors, and Cliffwater LLC for racial discrimination, fraud and retaliation.
“We cannot achieve racial justice if we are not seeking to uplift communities economically and we must challenge systemic racism and economic injustice when those rights are infringed on,” said Jacob Walthour, Managing Principal at Blueprint. “At Blueprint, we view fighting and advocating for racial justice and human equality not only as a responsibility but also as a civil right. Blueprint’s federal lawsuit for retaliation, fraud and racial discrimination seeks to do just that. As the defendants have withheld crucial documents and have retaliated against Blueprint by issuing misleading statements and calling clients to cause further harm to our franchise, it is apparent the defendants are not interested in meaningful resolution. We have retained Bowe and Sekulow because they both understand that both racial and economic justice for all Americans is at stake in our case and have the track record to ensure justice is served in this case.”
“In the wake of a climate of renewed amplification around civil rights and social justice, the conversation must include holding elected officials on all sides accountable for investments in the Black community,” said Rev. Dr. David Jefferson Sr., Esq., Senior Pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church and Board member of Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. “The public and importantly Black voters will finally get an opportunity to see how Phil Murphy and his team turned their back on a Black business and then sought to punish its founders for speaking up against economic injustice. The days of secrecy, influence peddling, favoritism and lack of transparency are over in Trenton’s investment division.”
Michael Bowe has almost thirty years of experience successfully litigating virtually every type of high-stakes business and personal case, on both the plaintiff and defense side, and at both the trial and appellate level. His tenacity and landmark use of the civil Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organizations Act (RICO) against the most powerful hedge funds on Wall Street has been credited with restoring almost $2 billion in market value for Fairfax Financial investors, was described by Fortune as a “Wall Street battle royal,” and sparked the largest insider trading investigation and conviction in history. Bowe’s cross-examination of SAC’s founder Steven Cohen in that case was also a focus of a Frontline documentary.
On representing Blueprint, Bowe said, “This case is about corrupt backroom cronyism, racial discrimination, and blatant hypocrisy by an old boys network publicly proclaiming its commitment to opportunity for African-Americans while scheming to misappropriate for itself the opportunity Blueprint’s ideas and sweat had created. The current complaint’s allegations are just the tip of an iceberg of misconduct that we have discovered and will continue to investigate and present to the Court and ultimately the jury.”
Jay Sekulow has decades of legal experience, most notably being his thirteen appearances before the Supreme Court of the United States, recently on behalf of President Donald Trump. He has unmatched expertise in defending First Amendment rights, including civil rights, of Americans. In Sekulow’s role as Chief Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), the ACLJ has grown into a powerhouse on Capitol Hill and around the world. Time Magazine named Sekulow one of the “25 Most Influential Evangelicals” in America. Sekulow is a lead member of President Trump’s legal team overseeing the Special Counsel’s investigation, the impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, and representing the President before the nation’s highest court. Sekulow founded CLAG so that he, along with a team of carefully chosen attorneys, could assist clients who require strategic counsel and aggressive advocacy.
“For four decades I have fought to protect civil and human rights and many of my cases revolve around equal access,” said Jay Sekulow, Founder and Senior Partner of CLAG. “As counsel for the Blueprint matter, I intend to expose the veil of inequity that exists in the asset management and financial services sector for Black Americans in this country. Racial and economic justice is everyone’s fight and anti-racism is not only bi-partisan, it transcends politics.”
Source: Blueprint Capital Advisors