Ameriprise Files for TRO Against 3 Advisors for Taking Client Data to LPL

"Roskelley, Tinyo, and Robertson violated — and continue to violate — the Protocol for Broker Recruiting, their contractual agreements with Ameriprise, and common and statutory law through their impermissible taking of confidential information related to clients, pre-solicitation, and solicitation of, the clients they previously serviced at Ameriprise," the complaint states.

Ameriprise recently discovered that prior to resigning from Ameriprise, "Roskelley, Tinyo, and Robertson preemptively violated the Protocol, their duties of loyalty to Ameriprise and their agreements, by taking confidential documents and information, sending unapproved packages of documents to clients via USPS, UPS, and electronic upload, and pre-solicited clients ahead of their resignation," the complaint states.

Leading up to their resignation on Jan. 27, Roskelley and Robertson, along with their Registered Practice Associate Tinyo, "conducted an irregular number of print jobs and printed a total of 8,887 pages of documents containing confidential information such as client names, account numbers, excel spreadsheets created by Defendants (not Ameriprise approved reports) that contain overview summaries of their high net worth clients, containing all of the information relating to the clients’ accounts including account numbers, holdings, required minimum distributions, beneficiary information, and owners of 52 plans with included children’s social security numbers and dates of birth," according to the complaint.

Several weeks before leaving to the competition, the advisors began their misconduct by pre-soliciting Ameriprise customers, according to the complaint.

In late 2024, an Ameriprise client serviced by the advisors "asked to open approximately 25-30 new 529 accounts for their grandchildren," the complaint continues.

"This client was Advisor Respondents’ largest client," the suit states. The advisors "told the client that Advisor Respondents were going to be leaving Ameriprise after the start of 2025 and instructed the client to wait until after Advisor Respondents had started at their new broker-dealer."

Further, "Ameriprise’s printing reports show that in the last six months of their employment Roskelley, Robertson, and Tinyo never printed documents of this type in this manner, except for the 8,887 pages of documents" printed between Jan. 22 and Jan. 24.

"In addition to the large number of print jobs of confidential information and documents, Roskelley, Tinyo, and Robertson also uploaded hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of unapproved customer statements to clients containing confidential information and client information," the complaint states.

Ameriprise has also "acquired photographic and video evidence showing Robertson exiting Ameriprise offices carrying a banker’s box filled with unknown documents, Roskelley exiting the Ameriprise office with several client packages filled with unknown documents, and both Tinyo and Robertson leaving the office with heavy backpacks," according to the suit.

Advisors, the suit states, "are prohibited from sending documents to clients just before transitioning to a competitor as an 'end-around' to the restrictions under the Protocol and their restrictive covenants."