Forbes and Shook Research, a major partner of the magazine, said they would suspend the rankings and events they produced together, reports Benjamin Mullin of The New York Times.
Mullin reports, “Forbes and Shook Research have worked together for years to publish rankings of the top wealth advisers in the United States. They have also produced an annual summit in Las Vegas, which was scheduled this year for mid-October and in the past drew executives from top financial firms, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock and Apollo.
“The New York Times reported this month that Forbes’s top editor, Randall Lane, had been fired after the publication learned that he had taken a $6 million payment from RJ Shook, the founder of Shook Research. Mr. Shook said on Monday that he had paid Mr. Lane for services that included helping to sell a controlling stake in Shook Research to a private equity firm, PPC Enterprises, last August.
“Mr. Lane has described the payment as a ‘gift’ and said that failing to disclose it to Forbes was a ‘serious error in judgment.’ Mr. Shook left Shook Research sometime after the sale.”
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