WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. filed a civil lawsuit on Tuesday towards personal fairness agency KKR & Co, “for repeatedly flouting the premerger antitrust assessment course of,” alleging the corporate averted antitrust scrutiny for at the very least 16 offers from 2021 to 2022.
“By way of doc omissions, alterations, and failures to report offers, KKR threatened the integrity of the (Antitrust) Division’s premerger evaluations and, in some circumstances, obscured the market influence of its offers and serial acquisitions,” stated Justice Division official Doha Mekki.
In a associated lawsuit filed towards the DOJ in federal court docket in Washington on Tuesday, KKR stated, “After a sweeping investigation that has spanned almost three years — with which KKR totally cooperated — the purported submitting ‘errors’ the Antitrust Division has recognized are trivial.”
“Not a single alleged ‘error’ was materials to or interfered with any merger assessment,” KKR added.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Enhancing by Doina Chiacu and Rod Nickel)
