Cavner, U.S. Bancorp lawsuit renewed

The legal battle between financial adviser Nadia Cavner and her former employer, U.S. Bancorp Investments Inc., renewed today as the judge directed Cavner to show cause why sanctions should not be levied against her.

At 10 a.m., Judge Richard Dorr called for Cavner to refute the claim that she illegally used confidential client lists to solicit business away from U.S. Bancorp. Dorr has said the court now has reason to believe evidence could support U.S. Bancorp’s allegations.

Results of the closed-door hearing in Missouri Western District Southern Division court were unknown at press time.

The Signature Bank hired Cavner away from U.S. Bancorp on Sept. 2 after 14 years of service, during which time she helped build an investment portfolio of between $363 million and more than $450 million. The two banks disagree on the portfolio’s value.

U.S. Bancorp filed a lawsuit against Cavner on Sept. 8, stating that she “began liquidating customer money market accounts for trading, and then holding the money for deployment at her new firm.”

The court ruled against U.S. Bancorp’s request for a temporary restraining order on Sept. 13 based, in part, on the defendants’ testimony that they had not illegally used client lists.

“We are not calling on any of Nadia’s past clients and asking them to come in and move their business and fill out paperwork,” David Kunze, The Signature Bank chairman and CEO, told Springfield Business Journal in September.

The case was under a stay until U.S. Bancorp filed a lift of stay and added U.S. Bancorp employees Devona Breeden, Brittney Murray, Steven Clark and Becky Angus to the suit on Nov. 21.

At a Nov. 29 hearing, Dorr granted the lift of stay and stated in a court order, “The court now has cause to believe that Nadia Cavner, with the assistance of at least some of the other defendants, took and used plaintiff USBI’s confidential and proprietary information to her benefit and to the benefit of her new employer. There is a strong likelihood that evidence will reflect that she coordinated a copy project of at least a significant amount of USBI’s customer data.”

Click here for the full story from Dec. 12.

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