(Bloomberg) — A former JPMorgan Chase & Co. private client adviser. which reached Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to temporarily stop soliciting clients from its former book worth more than $250 million while an arbitration is pending.

Gary Carruthers, who resigned in September, was sued by JPMorgan last week after he persuaded more than two dozen former clients with $24.3 million in assets under management to transfer their business to Wells Fargo . JPMorgan claims it breached contracts that barred it from soliciting clients for a year after leaving.

The consent agreement was approved Monday by Judge Arthur Engoron of New York State District Court in Manhattan. The settlement will remain in place until the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority issues a dispute settlement decision, the judge said.

Under the consent agreement, Carruthers must also return to JPMorgan all documents relating to the bank’s clients, employees or business. JPMorgan alleges that Carruthers engaged in “highly suspicious” computer activity in the month before he resigned, quickly accessing “an unusually large number of client profiles”.

Wells Fargo is not named as a defendant in the suit, but JPMorgan alleges that the San Francisco bank “incentivized” Carruthers to violate the restrictions with financial incentives totaling more than $1 million to change jobs.

The bank says Carruthers had about 369 clients with about $250 million under management at the time of his resignation, and that the “vast majority” of those were either pre-existing clients or were assigned to him by others at the bank. JPMorgan says several of its clients informed the bank that Carruthers had contacted them to discuss his move to Wells Fargo.

Neither JPMorgan nor Wells Fargo immediately responded to messages seeking comment. Michael C. Bond, an attorney for Carruthers, also did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

©2024 Bloomberg LP