Morgan Stanley is suing a former employee, accusing him of breaching his non-solicitation agreement when he left to work at Raymond James.
The Wire filed suit against Las Vegas-based adviser Nicholas Takahashi in Nevada federal court this week, seeking a temporary restraining order to stop him from allegedly luring clients at his former firm to follow him to Raymond James .
So far, Morgan Stanley argues that Takahashi has sought clients with hundreds of millions in assets representing more than $1 million in annual gross per wire income.
FINRA records show Takahashi entered the industry in 2008 at Wachovia before Wells Fargo acquired it and then joined Morgan Stanley in 2013. Takahashi signed an agreement not to disclose “confidential” client information to competitors and not would solicit clients from Morgan Stanley for a year after which he resigned or was fired, according to the wire.
On May 8, Takahashi and his $1.3 billion team joined Raymond James from Morgan Stanley. The team included Takahashi (who joined Raymond James as managing director), James Zapotocky, Joshua Yocam, Luka Vasiljevic, Michael Ortega, Stephen Ellignsen and Sean Tsaconas.
Morgan Stanley then contacted Takahashi, asking him to abide by his non-solicitation clause and return confidential client information, but the adviser denied holding such information.
By early September, Morgan Stanley claimed it learned that Takahashi and several team members contacted clients of Steve Kleinertz, another adviser to the house. According to the lawsuit, Kleinertz and Takahashi had a “joint production agreement” involving all of Kleinertz's clients, an arrangement encouraged by Morgan Stanley as a backup succession plan for unexpected life events.
However, according to Morgan Stanley, Takahashi (and his team) had not established any “client relationship or shared service” with Kleinertz, with each advisor managing their own clients without any overlap of services. For Morgan Stanley, the move was “primarily strategic” to keep succession options on the table.
“Thus, it is inconceivable that team members (Takahashi) and Takahashi would have knowledge of the clients served by Mr. Kleinertz and their highly sensitive information without having access to confidential client lists and records unrelated to the responsibilities their work for Morgan Stanley. , and unlawfully transferred such information to their new firm,” the complaint said.
Morgan Stanley claimed that Takahashi's team contacted “many, if not all” of Kleinertz's clients, with some of them surprised that the investigative team knew details of their account history, despite never having crossed paths.
The hotline alleged that Tsaconas (at Takahashi's direction) told clients Kleinertz was “no longer with Morgan Stanley” and their accounts were “no longer being actively managed.” The call office called the claims false “fear tactics” since Kleinertz was still with the firm.
Morgan Stanley claimed to have outlined the allegations in a September letter to Takahashi's lawyer. The following month, the team denied the allegations, claiming that Takahashi or his team had “personally interacted” with Kleinertz's clients. According to the wirehouse, this is not true and they claim that Takahashi's team continues to solicit Kleinertz's customer base.
Attorneys for Takahashi did not return a request for comment before publication.