A former executive of Milwaukee Bucks player Pat Connaughton’s company is suing, claiming he was retaliated against by Connaughton and others at the company after attempting to increase financial transparency.
Derek Taylor, former chief operating officer at Three Leaf Partners, filed the complaint in late February. His attorney, Jesse Kibort, claims in a complaint that Taylor left a lucrative law practice to join Three Leaf Partners after “promises of creating generational wealth.”
The complaint says Taylor tapped into his network and built a team that executed significant real estate, private equity, and numerous other business ventures for the company. “As a result, Taylor brought millions of dollars of profit to the firm,” the complaint says.
But, Taylor’s attorney argues that once he tried to “increase the financial performance” of the company, he encountered a lack of financial transparency at the company, including that Connaughton and another executive, Matthew Burow, were using company resources for their non-company business and personal purposes.
“When Taylor made efforts to increase financial transparency at the company and sought to hold Burow and Connaughton for their non-TLV uses to TLV resources, Burow and Connaughton started to freeze Taylor out of TLV,” the complaint says.
Burow and Connaughton removed Taylor as COO without any notice or explanation, locked him out of the company, and denied him access to the company’s books and records, contrary to the written operating agreement, according to the complaint.
“They even denied Taylor access to his own personal files and records, including information that Taylor needs to update and renew his law licenses,” the complaint says.
According to the complaint, Connaughton and Burow were “persistent” in getting Taylor to join the firm and offered him a little more than 5% in ownership of the company. In December 2024, Connaughton posted on social media that his real estate development firm already had amassed more than $550 million in assets.
In 2023, Taylor began to organize the company’s finances, according to the complaint, and reached an understanding that bonuses should be given to the company employees, but Burow and Connaughton rejected the idea.
“Taylor did not understand at the time why bonuses would not be given despite TLV’s success in 2023,” the complaint says.
Taylor’s attorney argues that Burow and Connaughton began engaging in “accounting practices when necessary to satisfy their need to show profitability by overstating project costs,” which Taylor objected to. According to the complaint, Connaughton was using company resources in the construction of his private residence and employee time for the Pat Connaughton Foundation, among other actions.
When Taylor opposed the practices, Connaughton and Burow “secretly engaged lawyers to begin the process of forcing Taylor out,” the complaint says.
On Jan. 24, Taylor went to a meeting with Connaughton, Burow, and attorneys. He believed it was an annual compensation review but instead was told he had been removed as COO of the company and his laptop was confiscated, the complaint says. Shortly thereafter, he was removed from the Three Leaf Partners website.
Taylor seeks access to his personal files and compensation for the “defendants’ wrongful actions,” the complaint says. His attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on April 18.
Attorneys for Three Leaf Partners didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Connaughton, Burow, and other defendants have until May 20 to respond in court to the allegations.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Former executive sues Pat Connaughton’s real estate company