Bill Ackman SPAC sued, plaintiffs say sponsors got ‘staggering compensation’

Bill Ackman’s troubled SPAC was hit with a lawsuit Tuesday that alleged the blank-check company awarded “staggering compensation” to its sponsors, and asked that the entity’s special status be revoked.

The lawsuit’s plaintiffs — former Securities and Exchange Commission commissioner Robert Jackson and law professor at Yale John Morley — claimed that Pershing Square Tontine Holdings isn’t an operating company at all, but that Ackman’s SPAC instead is an investment firm, just like his hedge funds. They said the SPAC should adhere to the Investment Company Act of 1940.

The suit said that “by telling…