A Black-owned private equity firm has filed a lawsuit against AT&T Inc., claiming discrimination for the rejection of a $4.6 billion bid in 2019 for a majority stake in Cricket Wireless business, according to Bloomberg.

Legacy Equity Advisors — owned by former Aldus Equity LLC partner Marcellus Taylor — claimed in a lawsuit filed May 4 in Dallas that AT&T rejected its offer and subsequently denied it opportunities to bid on 13 other assets, according to the suit.

“To secure a competitive bidding price for these assets, any reasonable, non-racist company in AT&T’s position would have allowed a firm like Legacy to participate in the bidding process,” lawyers representing Legacy said in the lawsuit. “Legacy’s money is as good and green as anyone else's (paper).”

The firm alleges less qualified white-owned firms ended up landing contracts in the lawsuit and says executives at AT&T questioned whether Black-owned firms could secure the capital to close the deals.

But, according to the suit, Taylor secured capital commitments from Dallas investor Tom Hicks, investment firm Bain Capital, and Roc Nation, Jay-Z’s entertainment agency.

An official offer was made on March 25, 2019, when Taylor met with AT&T's chief financial officer, John Stephens.

AT&T, according to a spokeswoman, denies the lawsuit's claims, according to Bloomberg.

“We do not discriminate, nor do we tolerate discrimination of any kind, and any suggestion that we do is just wrong,” reps from the telecommunications titan said in a statement.

The lawsuit alleges that AT&T failed to connect with its Black and Latinx customers, which make up the bulk of the wireless company’s user base.

AT&T rejected Legacy’s offer and later agreed to a $31 million bid from Taylor’s company to acquire 88 retail stores. But the lawsuit alleges the offer was a smokescreen.

AT&T officials told Taylor that he had to take ownership of the stores during the busy holiday season and that he couldn't hire existing store employees, circumstances Taylor claims were “designed to block Legacy's acquisition of the stores.”

According to the lawsuit, the acquisition was not finalized. In subsequent bids, the company alleges it was stiffed-armed from placing bids on divested AT&T assets.

“No other Black-owned company submitted a bid for these 14 assets, while at the same time, white-owned companies were allowed to bid and ultimately acquire the assets,” Taylor’s lawyers said in the lawsuit. “AT&T, in effect, blocked Legacy from pursuing these assets and sold them to white-owned companies that were less qualified and on more favourable terms.”