Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. is suing a former advisor employed at the firm for alleged theft of confidential client information.
The advisor, Christopher Canorro of Snoqualmie, Wash., left Schwab in May, along with two other Schwab employees, to form Basilica Wealth Management Inc.
Basilica, based in Bainbridge Island, Wash., is affiliated with LPL Financial.
Canorro’s lawyer, in turn, says the suit is similar to others Schwab has brought against advisors who left Schwab’s branch system.
“It terrorizes people into not going independent,” said Clinton Marrs, a partner at Tax Estate & Business Law Ltd. in Albuquerque, N.M., who represents Canorro.
Schwab alleges that Canorro, a former financial consultant at Schwab, illegally took Schwab client information for purposes of soliciting account transfers.
Canorro also brought along the two former Schwab portfolio consultants to Basilica: Gregory Talcott, chief investment officer at the new firm, and Dimitri Uhlik, director of client relations.
Financial consultants at Schwab are responsible for client relationships, while portfolio consultants handle portfolio management.
Schwab claims the three advisors together handled nearly $600 million in client assets.
“Canorro has engaged in and intends to continue engaging in additional misappropriation of Schwab’s confidential information and trade secrets for the purpose of soliciting Schwab’s clients,” the claim says.
The suit asks for a legal injunction against Canorro and unspecified damages.
As evidence, Schwab claims that on March 18, 2014, Canorro accessed the accounts of 56 clients -- far more than the 15 to 20 accounts he would normally check in a day.
Canorro accessed this information “and retained it in handwritten or some other form, for the purpose of soliciting Schwab’s clients,” the lawsuit says.
Schwab also says that on March 18, Uhlik spent most of the day in Canorro’s office “with the door closed.”