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A new broker is now suing Howden US and a pair of former employees for allegations of poaching and theft of trade secrets.

Last week Aon Risk Services Cos. filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against former employees Anthony Rampersaud and Nancy Montalvo as well as Howden US.

Aon seeks an injunction to stop the alleged misuse of boxes of documents it said contain Aon confidential and proprietary information that Rampersaud, a New York-based managing director, is accused of sending to his home before he and six others reporting to him resigned on the same day to join Howden US. Each allegedly violated Aon employment contracts.

Montalvo, Aon said, forwarded a client list to her personal email address. Rampersaud also has an Aon cellphone. Aon added that its investigation continues, and it expects what they know now “to be just the tip of the iceberg.”

Aon said Howden US, the new U.S. retail broking business of Howden launched just months ago, is “attempting to gain a foothold in the U.S. market by poaching employees and clients from established U.S.-operating brokerages by encouraging disloyal employees to solicit entire teams to abandon their positions and replicate the same work for Howden.”

Howden US is also being sued by broker Marsh. It has one suit against Howden US CEO Michael Parrish and several other former employees, plus a separate suit against another group of former employees now at Howden US for breach of various employee contracts. Aon mentions in its suit that Howden US is also being sued by WTW.

Howden US has a “troubling and well-established pattern of unlawfully poaching competitors’ employees and misappropriating confidential information (including detailed client and employee information)—conduct that warrants injunctive relief against defendants,” said Aon. In some cases, such relief has been awarded to Marsh and WTW, and former employees have been order to return confidential information.

Rampersaud had been with Aon since 2022. According to the lawsuit, he met with Howden founder David Howden in London late September to early October and began to allegedly coordinate the mass departure to Howden US. Soon after, said Aon, Rampersaud had “irregular printing activity” of documents containing Aon’s confidential and trade secret information. In the suit, Aon outlines some of Rampersaud’s online search histories, printing of shipping labels, and communication with employees using personal emails.

Rampersaud and the six others resigned on Nov. 25. When Aon sent couriers to retrieve devices, computers, badges, or boxes to Rampersaud’s and Montalvo’s residence earlier this month, all items were not surrendered.

Topics Lawsuits USA Agencies Fraud Aon