When Dain Rauscher Inc. bought Minneapolis neighbor Wessels Arnold & Henderson LLC four years ago, it thought it also was snagging all the top executives of the investment bank, known for its technology deals.
But the non-compete clause failed to stick. At least three executives left the firm within a year after the deal. Dain Rauscher fought paying the executives a debenture tied to the deal, but a New York Stock Exchange arbitration panel has ordered the brokerage house, now RBC Dain Rauscher, to pay up.
The panel ruled that Dain owes Joel Jacobs, Michael Ogborne and Michael Meitus a total of $3.84 million in debt and back salary. The executives, who were with Wessels Arnold & Henderson when Dain acquired it in the spring of 1998, soon moved to Thomas Weisel Partners LLC in San Francisco.
The arbitration panel found Dain's non-compete clause to be void and unenforceable, says the executives' lawyer, Neil Goteiner of Farella Braun + Martel LLP in San Francisco.
Each received a debenture when Wessels was bought, according to the arbitration decision. Dain attempted to repudiate that note. Mr. Jacobs was head of institutional sales with Wessels, and Mr. Ogborne was a top tech investment banker, says a source familiar with the case.
Red-light special
Who would think Wal-Mart Stores Inc. could be screened out of a mutual fund for being a purveyor of porn?
The Timothy Plan, a mutual fund company in Winter Park, Fla., that offers morally conscious funds, is selling its 9,200 shares of Wal-Mart because the Bentonville, Ark.-based chain displays Cosmopolitan magazine at its checkout lanes.
Timothy Plan president Arthur Ally, who describes Cosmo as the "most blatantly aggressive soft-core pornographic magazine in America," said Thursday in a press release that he also is calling on a network of 4,000 Christian financial planners and his company shareholders to boycott Wal-Mart.
Ever since he and his wife saw the magazine at their neighborhood Wal-Mart, Mr. Ally, whose firm has $135 million in assets, has been on a campaign to get Wal-Mart to remove Cosmo and similar magazines from its checkout lanes. The store, according to Mr. Ally, refused.
Companies already deemed morally depraved by Mr. Ally's funds include AOL Time Warner Inc. in New York, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. in New Albany, Ohio, and most entertainment companies. Taking the moral high ground hasn't done much for the seven Timothy Plan mutual funds tracked by Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. All rank below the 50th percentile for one-year returns.
Can't squawk about this
In a market where if it looks like a duck and smells like a duck, it still may not be a duck, it is refreshing to learn that AFLAC Inc. apparently is just what it claims to be - one honest duck.
The Better Business Bureau of Arlington, Va., has named the Columbus, Ga., issuer of supplemental health insurance one of the 28 finalists in the 2002 BBB International Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics competition.
The ducky insurer was one of the 2,800 businesses from 18 states and the Canadian province of Ontario to compete.
The BBB initiated the awards, presented annually to companies that represent honest and honorable business practices, in 1996.
Joining AFLAC as contenders in the largest-company category are property-casualty insurer Kemper Insurance Cos. of Long Grove, Ill., insurer and wealth manager Sun Life Financial of Wellesley, Mass., and utility firm Niagara Mohawk of Syracuse, N.Y.
The winners will be announced Sept. 23 in Minneapolis.
