Star bond fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach denied in court testimony that he requested his co-workers gather anything "we might need" from his former employer, Trust Company of the West.

The denial on Wednesday counters testimony earlier in the trial from Gundlach's co-defendant, Cris Santa Ana.

"We didn't copy any TCW code or systems to the best of my knowledge," he told jurors.

Gundlach and TCW are locked in a trial that has given a rare glimpse into the inner workings of investment firms and the big personalities who run them.

TCW fired Gundlach in December 2009 and sued him a month later, accusing him of stealing trade secrets, plotting to form a new company using TCW proprietary information and gutting the firm of its entire mortgage-backed securities team.

Gundlach fired back with a counter-lawsuit, alleging his former employer owed him hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation.

In the weeks following his termination, Gundlach went on to form DoubleLine Capital, along with three of his co-defendants in the case. Roughly 45 TCW employees, largely from the mortgage-backed securities group, followed.

Santa Ana, a member of the Gundlach's mortgage-backed securities group at TCW, is now chief risk officer at DoubleLine.

"Jeffrey asked for contacts, contracts, board of director contacts, copies of the red books which had the trade orders, holdings," Santa Ana testified last week. "And I think he made a blanket statement, something to the effect, 'and anything else you might think we would need.'"

Gundlach, who calls himself "The Pope" and "The Godfather," was on the stand on Wednesday for his fourth day of testimony.

At one point, Gundlach told TCW attorney John Quinn that, "with respect, you don't know what you're talking about," as Quinn drew a diagram of how mortgage-backed securities work on a display board for the jury.

TCW is a unit of French bank Societe Generale (SOGN.PA).

The case in Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles is Trust Co of the West v. Jeffrey Gundlach et al, BC429385.

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