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Tullett Prebon Sues Three BGC Executives Over `Raid' on 77 N.Y, N.J Staff
Tullett Prebon Financial Services LLC sued three executives affiliated with the inter-dealer broker BGC Partners Inc., alleging they helped plot the hiring away of 77 of its staffers.
The lawsuit, filed at the New York state courthouse in Manhattan today, claims that BGC Managing Director Anthony Verrier, President Shaun Lynn and Chief Operating Officer Sean Windeatt plotted a “raid” on Tullett personnel in its New York and New Jersey offices.
“Defendants secretly conspired and executed the meticulously planned scheme,” according to the complaint, by gaining the assistance and cooperation of key Tullett executives, then “bribing those senior-level employees with extraordinary compensation packages.”
London-based Tullett Prebon Plc, like BGC, is a firm that matches securities trades between banks. In June, the British firm lost a Newark, New Jersey, lawsuit filed against its American rival after U.S. District Judge Stanley Chesler ruled that it had failed to include its U.S.-based affiliates as a party in interest.
Claiming the hirings last year cost it $387 million in market capitalization, Tullett had sought more that $1 billion in damages in the unsuccessful federal court case.
‘Shift Blame’
Today’s lawsuit was brought by New Jersey-based Tullett Financial and Tullett Americas.
BGC spokesman Robert Hubbell didn’t immediately reply to voicemail and e-mail messages seeking comment on the new suit.
Tullett is “attempting to use the judicial and industry dispute-resolution mechanisms in an effort to shift blame to BGC for their own failures,” New York-based BGC said in a November 2009 regulatory filing, calling the litigation “unwarranted and unprecedented.”
Alleging contractual interference, theft of trade secrets and defamation, the U.K. firm seeks damages of at least $110 million per year for the three to five years it says it needs to replace the lost brokers and business, plus punitive damages of $1 billion.
The case is Tullett Prebon Financial Services v. Verrier, 651265, New York State Supreme Court, New York County (Manhattan).
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew M. Harris in Chicago at aharris16@bloomberg.net
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