Nadia Cavner successor leaves Springfield office

Don Gass took over Cavner’s position in September when she moved to The Signature Bank. His last day in Springfield was March 17, the same day Cavner adversary Melissa Gaustad resigned from a U.S. Bancorp Investments Inc. office in Ohio.

Meanwhile, Cavner and her former employer are embroiled in a lawsuit.

Cavner left U.S. Bancorp Sept. 2 to start a brokerage division at The Signature Bank’s East Sunshine branch. U.S. Bancorp filed a lawsuit six days later, alleging that Cavner and four other former U.S. Bancorp employees illegally used confidential client lists – photocopied on rented copiers by interns and staff at off-site locations – to solicit business away from U.S. Bancorp. The suit says The Signature Bank had knowledge of the actions.

Cavner filed a counterclaim saying she left U.S. Bancorp because senior managers harassed her for blowing the whistle on an “inappropriate relationship” between Steven Short, president of U.S. Bancorp’s Ohio-based Insurance and Investments Division, and Gaustad, a former high-level marketing representative for U.S. Bancorp’s Minnesota-based Insurance and Investments Division.

U.S. Bancorp spokesman Steve Dale wouldn’t comment on specifics of the moves or whether they were in response to the lawsuit with Cavner. He said that Gass moved back to his senior financial consultant position in Joplin for family reasons. Gass declined to comment.

The Signature Bank’s Cavner also wouldn’t speculate: “We are focused on our great business and our clients,” she said.

Chris de Leon and Walter Axtell, senior financial consultants and certified financial planners, carry the torch in the Springfield U.S. Bancorp office, 1615 S. Glenstone Ave.

There are no plans to hire a local replacement for Gass, de Leon said, adding that he, Axtell and three others are capable of handling the workload. Since September, de Leon said the bank’s number of investment customers has dropped from about 3,500 to just more than 2,500.

Neither de Leon nor Dale attributed the decline to Cavner’s leaving and said business was running smoothly at the branch.

The next legal action should come April 24 in Kansas City in the form of an NASD arbitration hearing. The NASD is conducting arbitration because U.S. Bancorp is a NASD member and three defendants, including Cavner, signed agreements with U.S. Bancorp that contained NASD arbitration provisions.

The lawsuit and NASD arbitration are separate proceedings.