JPMorgan sues ex-advisor for harvesting client data before defecting to rival

JPMorgan is suing a former wealth advisor it says raided client data in late-night sessions, then used it to poach accounts for a rival firm. 

The Wall Street giant filed suit against Thomas L. Staley, a former Private Client Advisor who worked out of a JPMorgan Chase bank branch in Westfield, Indiana. According to the filing in J.P. Morgan Securities LLC v. Staley, No. 1:26-cv-00571-JPH-TAB (S.D. Ind.), Staley resigned on February 6, 2026, and immediately joined Maia Wealth, LLC, an independent registered investment advisor with an office in Indianapolis. 

At the time of his departure, Staley serviced roughly 272 households with approximately $123 million in total assets under supervision. 

What makes this case stand out is not the departure itself but what JPMorgan says happened before Staley walked out the door. 

The firm alleges that over the weekend of December 19 to 21, 2025, Staley accessed approximately 171 client profiles on JPMorgan's internal Advisor Central system — all during late-night, after-hours sessions. On one evening alone, the firm says he pulled up about 67 profiles between 9:07 p.m. and 1:56 a.m. For context, the filing notes that Staley accessed a total of only 259 and 266 profiles during the entire months of October and November 2025, respectively. 

Then, in the 24 hours before handing in his resignation, Staley allegedly accessed approximately 140 more — including 48 profiles in rapid succession less than an hour before he resigned. 

JPMorgan says those profiles contained sensitive client details: names, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, account balances, and specific investment holdings. 

But the allegations go beyond data access. JPMorgan says Staley began calling former clients shortly after leaving, pitching lower fees, better returns, and more personalized service at Maia. One client reportedly told JPMorgan that Staley overstated the fees they were paying at the firm — presumably, according to the filing, to scare the client into transferring. Another said Staley told them he "could not ask them to come with him," but that they could tell him they wanted to meet — conduct JPMorgan describes as going well beyond simply announcing a change of employment. 

The firm says around 22 households, holding roughly $5.8 million in assets, have already moved their accounts to Staley at Maia. 

At the heart of the case is a non-solicitation and confidentiality agreement Staley signed when he joined JPMorgan in late 2014, which barred him from soliciting the firm's clients for 12 months after leaving and from retaining or using confidential client information. JPMorgan notes that the agreement gave Staley the option to list any pre-existing client relationships that would be exempt from the restriction — but that section was left blank. 

The firm is seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to halt Staley's alleged solicitation while a concurrent FINRA arbitration proceeding plays out. It has raised claims including breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, conversion, and unfair competition, among others. 

Staley has not yet responded to the claims, and no court ruling has been issued. The case remains in its earliest stages.