Ex-Ameriprise manager: I got fired for flagging violations

A former branch manager for Ameriprise Financial Inc. has sued the company, alleging that he was fired for raising serious allegations about the firm's oversight of brokers. Michael Loscalso alleged in the lawsuit that his repeated complaints to management “about fraud, forgery and other practices which violated SEC rules and regulations led to the retaliatory termination of his employment” by Ameriprise. The suit was filed Oct. 8 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Mr. Loscalso is seeking back pay and unspecified damages from Ameriprise. He earned $260,000 per year and supervised more than 50 registered representatives, and 60 licensed and unlicensed staff members. He was based in an Ameriprise branch in West Conshohocken, Pa. The “whistle-blower” suit also alleges that Mr. Loscalso was engaged in the “protected activity of reporting violations of Securities and Exchange Commission rules and regulations to management on numerous occasions throughout his employment and immediately prior to his termination.” According to the suit, which was reported earlier by Courthouse News Service, the violations reported by him included incidents related to forgery, fraud, unlicensed sales, unlicensed signing of documents, overcharging for financial planning services, underdelivery of financial planning advice, and breaches of client privacy and data security. In one case that Mr. Loscalso said he reported, a broker's assistant signed 30 annuity applications on the broker's behalf. Ameriprise issued the rep a letter of caution and took no further action, according to the lawsuit. In another incident that Mr. Loscalso said he took to his bosses, a broker allowed an unlicensed assistant to transact client business by processing and completing trades using the broker's identification number. Between the end of September and October 2009, Mr. Loscalso told “several members of management that he was considering alerting outside regulatory agencies, including [the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc.] and the SEC, about his concerns regarding violations of SEC rules and regulations,” according to the suit. Ameriprise fired him Nov. 5, 2009, according to the suit. In a letter to Mr. Loscalso, Ameriprise managers said that he was fired because he failed to supervise his advisers. “We terminated Mr. Loscalso for performance,” Chris Reese, an Ameriprise spokesman, wrote in an e-mail. “The Department of Labor dismissed his case against Ameri-prise, and we will fight this baseless lawsuit vigorously.” E-mail Bruce Kelly at [email protected].