“… Beings so moral and rational that they cannot comprehend the art of lying. They do not even have a word for the concept, and are forced to describe a lie as “the thing which is not,” said Glasscock. “After hearing the testimony of some of Nuveen’s witnesses, one might think they were such beings. Their circumlocutions for falsehoods—“hedge,” “bluff,” “exaggeration,” “role-play,” “scenario,” “overstatement,” “blustering,” “short-cutting,” “puff,” “shorthand,” “overblowing”—in situations where more quotidian creatures would simply say “lie,” might make one doubt that the latter word is in their vocabulary.”
Nuveen was found guilty of using “threats and lies in a successful attempt to damage PHC in its business relationships.” Nuveen and John Miller, it’s head of municipal finance, also attempted to “organize a boycott” of PHC through “threatening and anticompetitive” phone calls and correspondence with banks and broker-dealers.
Vice-Chancellor Glasscock found Nuveen liable for the anti-competitive and injurious actions which “intentionally and illegally” interfered with PHC’s business relations with its primary lender Deutsche Bank AG and six major Wall Street investment banks including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo.
