Sears sues Mnuchin alongside former CEO for alleged multibillion-dollar theft

Sears on Thursday named Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a lawsuit against the company’s former CEO, Edward Lampert, alleging that Mnuchin was part of a group of board members who assisted Lampert and his hedge fund in stripping the bankrupted retailer of more than $2 billion in assets.

Lampert and his hedge fund, ESL Investments, were the largest shareholders in Sears, holding between 47.8 percent and 62 percent of its stock during the time of the alleged violations, from 2011 to 2015, according to the lawsuit. They, along with two other major shareholders named in the suit, received the vast majority of the benefit of spinning off five different company assets, according to the complaint.