Bank of American has won a court order temporarily preventing four former wealth management employees from using client data at their new firm, Dynasty Financial Partners, a provider of technology and services to investment advisors.
Michael Brown, Charles Britton, Marcus Wilson and Amanda Kerley left US Trust, which BofA acquired in 2006, to join Dynasty - recently formed by ex-Citi man Todd Thompson - earlier this month. Dynasty is also a defendant.
According to the suit, the four took with them "trade secrets", including information on a password-protected database such as client names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mails.
The defendants claimed in their resignation letters that they were entitled to take the records under a voluntary recruiting agreement protocol agreed by some firms. However, Bank of America says it has not signed the relevant agreement.
In a temporary order, a judge has told the defendants not to use of disclose the data and to return it to US Trust. However they can continue to advise clients pending a hearing set for January.