The lure of China for the Cantor alumni who were sued -- none of whom reads or writes Chinese -- lies in a pipeline of deals promised by China Chengtong Holdings Group Ltd., a joint venture partner in Reorient Financial's Hong Kong-based parent Reorient Group Ltd. Chengtong is a conglomerate with more than 100 subsidiaries ranging from logistics to pulp and paper. It wants foreign expertise and capital to streamline its sprawling business, sell off assets and expand overseas.
Boutique Bank
"Our goal is to create a new boutique-style investment and merchant bank that can take the Chinese out through joining assets and acquisition, and bring foreign money in," Brett McGonegal, who left Cantor along with Boyer and is now Reorient's chief executive officer, said in an interview. He appeared in court wearing tailored suits matched with embroidered slippers.
Boyer, a wine collector, says he knew his exit would upset his boss, Cantor's New York-based chairman and chief executive officer Howard Lutnick, 50. Lutnick has a history of legal battles with rivals, including other brokers and the widow of Cantor's founder, B. Gerald "Bernie" Cantor, from whom he wrested control of the firm.
New York-based Cantor spokesman Robert Hubbell declined to comment on the case or say whether the company would appeal the ruling.
No Gold Watch
"In any other company in the world you'd get a handshake and a party if you left -- maybe even a gold watch for building up such a business," said Boyer, who says he expanded the brokerage's Hong Kong unit from four to 75 people in three years after relocating from New York in 2004. "I'd seen enough of Cantor to know I wasn't going to get a handshake."
Four days after his dinner with Bensadoun, Boyer quit along with two of the firm's top traders -- Americans Bradford Ainslie, 34, and McGonegal, 38, from the cash equities desk -- and German-born Uwe Parpart, 70, Cantor's former chief Asia economist and strategist. Boyer became Reorient's vice chairman and executive managing director.
Six weeks later Cantor filed its lawsuit, claiming their departures cost the Wall Street firm 29 percent of its average monthly revenue in Hong Kong.
The 5-day trial in January at Hong Kong's High Court focused in part on Cantor's corporate culture under Lutnick.
Boyer's counsel, Adrian Huggins, told the court that his client knew anyone who crossed Lutnick "will be pursued to the end of the world."
'Years to Come'
When Bensadoun took the witness stand, Huggins asked whether Lutnick had an aggressive outburst in which he said: "I hope Jason Boyer has saved all the money he made here because he'll need it for his lawyers for years to come."