A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel has ordered Raymond James and a former Wells Fargo advisor to pay Wells Fargo Advisors nearly $20 million, the broker-dealer regulator announced Thursday.
According to the award, Raymond James and the former advisor, Kent Jackson Rhoades, are jointly and severally liable to pay Wells Fargo Advisors $15.3 million in compensatory damages. Rhoades must also pay $3.5 million in attorneys' fees and another $847,000 in other costs.
Raymond James is also required to pay $1 million in punitive damages.
Wells Fargo Advisors asserted that it "was damaged" by a "coordinated raid" conducted by Raymond James and Rhoades of a branch office in Mountain Home, Arkansas, "which targeted all of the employees of the Mountain Home Branch and resulted in its closure."
Raymond James recruited Wells Fargo advisors away and opened a new branch office in the same town. The entire team left Wells Fargo and opened a new office with a Raymond James sign.
