Eddie Lampert is in hot water. So is Bond villain Steven Mnuchin.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sears Holdings Corp sued longtime former Chairman Eddie Lampert, his hedge fund ESL Investments and others like Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, claiming they illegally siphoned billions of dollars of assets from the retailer before it went bankrupt.

The lawsuit, made public on Thursday, was filed by the restructuring team winding down Sears’ bankruptcy estate and suing on behalf of creditors, many of whom blame Lampert for the retailer’s downfall.

It followed the billionaire’s $5.2 billion purchase in February of most Sears assets, including the DieHard and Kenmore brands, after a bankruptcy auction.

The complaint seeks the repayment of “billions of dollars of value looted from Sears,” including while it was in what Lampert would later call a “death spiral” where it sold core assets to meet daily expenses with no real plan for becoming profitable.

finance.yahoo.com

Lampert’s real motivation for taking control of Sears was to rake in billions while sucking the corporation dry, like a money vampire.