Proxy Rigging Alleged at Schorsch-Linked Firm Before Apollo Deal

An arm of Nicholas Schorsch’s investment empire pressured employees into rigging shareholder proxy votes, Massachusetts’ securities regulator alleged in a complaint filed Thursday.

The complaint lays out allegations of a web of companies founded, created or partly owned by Schorsch -- alleging that employees of one of them, a Boston-based broker-dealer, impersonated shareholders in a bid to sway a proxy vote at another of the companies, an investment vehicle created by a firm that Schorsch co-founded.