Hedgeye sues Solstein Capital over alleged intellectual property theft

EXCLUSIVE: Independent research firm Hedgeye Risk Management has filed a lawsuit against a financial-TV personality and hedge fund manager in federal court alleging theft of the outfit's proprietary analysis by a former company executive that is also subject of litigation, FOX Business has learned.

Nadine Terman, the founder and CEO of Solstein Capital, is being sued for her alleged involvement in stealing Hedgeye's intellectual property, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court.

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Terman, a contributor for the financial news network CNBC, has been named as a defendant in the lawsuit that states she and former managing director of Hedgeye, Darius Dale, conspired to exploit Hedgeye’s intellectual property for their own personal gain.

The complaint alleges that Dale, now the chief executive of research firm 42 Macro, together with Terman and Dale’s business partner, Steven Lamar, set up 42 Macro as a competing company using trade secrets and confidential data taken from Hedgeye’s research database. Dale left Hedgeye in March 2021.

Terman, according to the complaint, worked closely with Dale in his final weeks at Hedgeye, keeping in constant contact with him while he allegedly copied Hedgeye’s research to a shared Dropbox, which he later deleted after duplicating the files. According to the lawsuit, Terman and Solstein Capital used the information from the shared Dropbox to directly access and acquire Hedgeye’s confidential information and trade secrets. Terman ended her subscription with Hedgeye following Dale’s resignation.

Terman and Solstein Capital, which she co-founded in 2010, had been using Hedgeye’s research subscription service since 2017 for which she paid as much as $140,000 a year, according to the complaint. Terman hired Hedgeye’s former volatility analyst in 2019 despite a mutual non-solicitation agreement with Hedgeye.

"We have reviewed the allegations and this lawsuit is without merit," Terman said in a statement to FOX Business.

Dale could be reached for comment.

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Hedgeye is seeking damages in the millions along with an injunctive order, which, according to the lawsuit, prohibits defendants from further purchasing research based on stolen Hedgeye financial models, financing and otherwise assisting Dale, Lamar and 42 Macro with their ongoing misappropriation; and further misappropriating any of Hedgeye’s proprietary, confidential or trade secret information.

"It’s shocking how depraved, egregious and immoral the actions of these particular individuals were," Hedgeye President Michael Blum said in a statement. "Stealing is not acceptable when conducting business in our country, especially in our regulated industry."

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In August 2021, a federal judge granted Hedgeye an injunction against Dale after he admitted in a deposition that he had set up his own financial models at 42 Macro with Hedgeye’s proprietary models open side-by-side with his own and looking at both "essentially at the same time."