On a Dominican Republic vacation five years ago, private equity boss Matthew Constantino almost died.
The Delos Capital Management founder went on to write a self-help book describing a near-death experience from drinking contaminated alcohol that sent him on a journey of daily gratitude and doctor-assisted ketamine use. But Delos’ former chief operating officer claims in a lawsuit that the incident was part of a pattern of excessive drinking and erratic behavior.
Delos and Constantino, a former Apollo Global Management partner, were sued last week by ex-Delos COO Sanjay Sanghoee, who claims the founder’s conduct sabotaged the middle-market private equity firm’s $275 million Fund II. Sanghoee says he was illegally ousted in 2024 in part because he raised concerns about Constantino’s alleged alcohol abuse as well as his mistreatment of staff.
The June 3 complaint says that Constantino, who founded Delos in 2013, drank so much that he fell on a regular basis, showed up at investor events visibly intoxicated and needed a retired surfer to be his “paid sober companion.” This conduct “concerned and alarmed investors,” Sanghoee alleges.
In a statement provided by a lawyer who represents both Constantino and New York-based Delos, the firm said the suit was without merit and that it would defend itself vigorously.
“At its core, the complaint amounts to a personal attack on an individual — not a legitimate claim against the firm or its operations,” the firm said in a statement. “We are confident in our legal position and will address the specifics in the appropriate forum. Delos Capital Management continues to operate with the highest standards of integrity and remains focused on delivering for our investors.”
Carried Interest
Sanghoee is seeking at least $20 million that he claims he would’ve earned in carried interest in Fund II, in which he says he invested $900,000 of his own money. He also wants bonuses and other compensation he says he were unlawfully denied “despite his significant work in trying to keep the firm afloat while Mr. Constantino floundered in a drunken haze, unable to fulfill his duties.”
Delos said in its statement that Sanghoee “never had a written employment agreement with the firm” and that “the compensation being sought was never contractually promised nor owed.”
According to Sanghoee, Constantino frequently withheld bonuses or other promised benefits from Delos staff, in one case reneging on a pledge to cover a former associate’s tuition at Harvard Business School. Sanghoee claims he was ousted from Delos in part because he refused to go along with the illegal withholding of a bonus from the firm’s chief financial officer. He says several other staffers were fired without receiving bonuses.
Sanghoee, who joined Delos in 2013 after earlier stints at Lazard and Ramius Capital Group, claims Constantino’s heavy drinking led to him barely showing up at the office and frequently canceling investor-update calls. He says Constantino ordered him and others at Delos to “outright lie” to investors about the founder’s absences.
According to Sanghoee, Constantino’s “abject and prolonged neglect of his fiduciary duties” turned Fund II into an “unmitigated disaster,” failing to generate any meaningful profit for investors. The fund’s investments have included regional gym operator Onelife Fitness, which was acquired by Apollo co-founder Josh Harris’ 26North Partners in a 2024 deal that valued the company at $500 million. Sanghoee says this exit “generated only minimal distributions — consisting primarily of a return of capital.”
‘Frustrated Investors’
Ari Lefkovits, a then-Delos managing partner, said in a Bloomberg Intelligence podcast last year that the firm had seven portfolio companies at the time, and was looking to add to its staff of 10 employees to build a business where the firm could be an adviser or an investor in “outside the box” situations. Lefkovits and two other Delos staffers left to launch Apotheo Capital last month.
Years before his Dominican Republic trip, Constantino began “using bizarre and contextually inappropriate spiritual references in communications with investors” Sanghoee said. This “frustrated investors who were not getting proper answers to their investment-related questions but instead being treated to irrelevant, stream-of-consciousness nonsense,” he added.
Constantino last year released a self-help book entitled Gratitude, Strength and Opportunity, which promises that his method and “fearless example” will help readers “achieve the introspective clarity essential for progress in every facet of their lives.” In the book, which is structured along the lines of daily journal entries, Constantino refers to “a rough few years” but doesn’t explain further. He gives his account of the Dominican Republic trip in the introduction.
But Sanghoee claims in his suit that Constantino’s experience in the Dominican Republic, which resulted in him being airlifted to the US, resulted not from poisoning but from “sheer alcohol consumption.” Constantino has embellished the story since, adding “wild conspiracy theories” and exaggerating public interest in his tale, Sanghoee said.
“He would often boast that Hollywood stars Ben Affleck and Christian Bale were both interested in making a movie about the story and playing him in the film, even claiming that he was in discussions with them,” Sanghoee said, noting that Constantino “also often talked about the Dominican Republic incident with investors.”
The suit is Sanghoee v. Delos Capital Management LP, 653314/2026, New York State Supreme Court, New York County.
With assistance from Max Abelson and Laura Benitez.
©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
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