A former broker for Credit Suisse has won compensatory damages from two units of Wells Fargo in a dispute over deferred compensation, according to Think Advisor.
Anthony Aris Dertouzos had failed a claim against Wells Fargo Advisors and Wells Fargo Clearing Services in November 2018. He said the firm engaged in “negligent misrepresentations, fraud, aiding and abetting Credit Suisse’s scheme to steal the deferred compensation from its relationship managers, negligence, and unjust enrichment.”
Dertouzos said Wells Fargo had taken these alleged actions after signing an exclusive agreement with Credit Suisse to recruit about 300 brokers with the Swiss bank as it was going out of business.
A three-member panel of arbitrators for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ordered Wells Fargo Advisors and Wells Fargo Clearing Services to pay Dertouzos over $987,000 in compensatory damages after ruling that that the two divisions were “jointly and severally liable.”
Dertouzos, who was with Credit Suisse from 2008 to 2015, had been requesting compensatory damages of at least $5.5 million. He also requested further damages to be proven at trial in the event he did not recover 100% of the deferred compensation Credit Suisse owed him. Wells Fargo responded by requesting that the claim be dismissed in its entirety.
Dertouzos named three other individual respondents from Wells Fargo in his complaint, but the claims against them were denied.
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