Icahn Money Manager Sues His Bosses and Bausch + Lomb Over Anti-White Bias

A money manager at Carl Icahn’s investment firm is suing Bausch + Lomb Corp. and his billionaire employer, alleging he was discriminated against for being White.

The manager, Steven Miller, claims he wasdenied a board seat when the activist investor took a stake in the company. His suit alleges that Bausch + Lomb required one of the two board directors Icahn Capital would nominate be “diverse,” according to a complaint filed Monday in federal court in Miami.

A fellow money manager got the role over Miller, leading to what the suit claims is “hundreds of millions” of dollars in lost compensation. Miller is seeking at least $221 million in damages.

Miller is represented by , the group co-founded by President Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller. In February, AFL and Florida’s State Board of Administration filed a suit against Target Corp. alleging the retailer misled investors and customers about the risks associated with its diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

A Bausch + Lomb spokesperson declined to comment. Ted Papapostolou, chief financial officer at Icahn Enterprises, didn’t return messages seeking comment. Miller, who isn’t related to Stephen Miller, also didn’t return messages.

Icahn Capital bought in Bausch + Lomb’s parent, Bausch Health, in 2021 and Miller was put on Bausch Health’s board with Brett Icahn, Carl Icahn’s son, according to the complaint. A year later, Bausch + Lomb established its own board after an initial public offering. The board included Brett Icahn and Gaoxiang “Gary” Hu, but not Miller.

The eye-health company’s requirement for a “diverse” director was set out in a private agreement with Icahn Capital that wasn’t disclosed to US financial regulators, the complaint says.

Bausch + Lomb welcomed Hu’s appointment as part of the company’s efforts to boost shareholder value. Hu also has held board seats at companies including Dana Inc. and Occidental Petroleum Corp. and previously worked at Silver Point Capital. Brett Icahn and Hu left the Bausch + Lomb board this year.

Hu, Brett Icahn and Carl Icahn also are named as defendants in the suit. Hu hasn’t responded to requests for comment and the Icahns couldn’t be reached.

According to the lawsuit, Miller has served on the boards of six publicly traded companies, including JetBlue Airways Corp., and has “a perfect record of shareholders voting in favor” of his reelection. “But according to Bausch + Lomb’s self-imposed diversity mandate, his skin was the wrong color,” the complaint states.

The AFL alleges on behalf of Miller that the decision to not place him on the Bausch + Lomb board violates 42 USC 搂1981, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits race-based discrimination in contracts, according to the complaint.

Corporate boards have grown more diverse in the past decade as companies put a focus on diversity and inclusion. When Trump returned to the White House, he vowed to counteract explicit efforts to diversify boards, executive suites and workplaces, taking aim in particular at DEI programs at companies and universities.

The complaint says that Miller proposed and was responsible for Icahn Capital’s investment in Bausch + Lomb and that he was one of the firm’s preferred director candidates.

Before joining Icahn Capital, Miller was an analyst at BlueMountain Capital Management and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. He has previously been a board director at Xerox Holdings Corp. and Herc Holdings, and is currently on JetBlue’s board.

The case is Miller v. Bausch Health Companies, US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Case No. 25-cv-25893

Photo: Carl Icahn at an election night event in New York in 2016. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg