You know when a company like Wilmington Trust (NYSE:WL) sues former employees after leaving the company that there is pain involved, as they have with 3 former vice presidents who were hired away by Citigroup (NYSE:C).
Some of the allegations appear nonsensical, such as those claiming they got together with other employees and attempted to persuade them to leave the company for Citigroup. Even if that is true, so what?
Other complaints are the alleged attempt by Barbara L. McCollum to user her computer at the company to attempt to email the entire financial database for clients of her team in the Wealth Advisory Services group to another email account.
Robert D. Rosenberg was accused of being provided with a document containing WAS client information by his assistant which he allegedly took with him after he stepped down.
If this final one is true, it may have merit and legs to stand on. In this case the three defendants, which also includes Paul T. Gordon, along with McCollum and Rosenberg, were accused of falsifying the facts surrounding the upcoming merger with M&T and implying that the accounts were at risk if they stayed with Wilmington Trust.
Wilmington Trust is seeking temporary restraining orders which would keep the former executives from working for Citi, from soliciting former WTC clients, and from divulging any trade secrets. The company also is asking for the return of any confidential information they may possess.
The reason this is all a big deal is the key catalyst in M&T deciding to acquire WTC was the Wealth Advisory Services unit, according to the lawsuit.
If that's found to be the case, and a significant chuck of clients migrated to Citigroup via these executives, it would be a big blow to the deal and it's purpose.
No comments:
Post a Comment