Wells Fargo Advisors LLC Ordered to Pay $948,000 in Fees/Costs to Stifel Nicolaus & Co., Inc.
Wells Fargo Advisors LLC has been ordered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. arbitration panel to pay $633,000 in attorney’s fees to Stifel Nicolaus & Co., Inc. and $282,000 in fees to Chris Nielsen, a former A.G. Edwards branch manager in Grass Valley, CA who left in October 2007 with several Edwards brokers to set up shop for Stifel. A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc., now part of Wells Fargo, brought a raiding suit against Stifel and Mr. Nielsen, lost the arbitration, and were ordered to pay fees to the prevailing parties.
Last December 2009, Wells Fargo was ordered to pay $1.1 million in legal costs to Stifel in a South Carolina case involving four legacy Edwards brokers, with arbitrators ruling that Wells Fargo attorneys may have misled a South Carolina federal court about video surveillance used in getting a restraining order against the brokers. Wells Fargo seeks to vacate the arbitration ruling in a May 13, 2010 scheduled court hearing.
For more details on these stories, see Dan Jamieson’s May 10, 2010 article “Wells Fargo loses another A.G. Edwards raiding case to Stifel” in InvestmentNews.
Janelle Mercuro Asks for $8,400 in Legal Fees from City of Huntington Beach.
Janelle Mercuro is the wife of a San Clemente man who was arrested for allegedly embezzling $365,000 from professional skater/MTV reality show star Ryan Sheckler, and who later took a plea deal and was convicted of two grand theft felony counts. Now, she has filed three claims against the City of Huntington Beach. The claims involve lost property and fees she incurred as a result of the investigation of her husband by the Huntington Beach police. With respect to legal fees, Ms. Mercuro is asking for $8,400 for expenses she accrued while trying to get back personal property such a computer taken during the police investigation.
Annie Burris and Jon Cassidy have the full story in an article, “Wife of embezzler seeks thousands,” published in the May 11, 2010 edition of The Orange County Register.
BLOG UNDERVIEW—Happy second birthday to this blog. Co-contributors Marc and Mike did their inaugural post on May 11, 2008. It seems like yesterday. Mike does not know how Marc has tolerated him these last two years, while Marc (wisely) has taken the Fifth.