In a suit filed last Tuesday, Fortrend Securities Pty Ltd alleges that Shaw was involved in the unconscionable conduct of former advisors Christopher Wollermann and Stephen Lyle, who defected from the company on December 16.

The suit alleges that from about June 2022, the pair schemed to solicit Fortrend clients for Shaw and misappropriate their contact details and personal and financial information, as well as company “know-how”.

According to a concise statement filed in the Federal Court, Wollermann and Lyle downloaded the information from Fortrend’s servers onto personal USB drives, all or some of which was subsequently shared with Shaw. The pair allegedly encouraged clients to move their accounts to Shaw, and conspired with Shaw to solicit clients.

The suit alleges that Wollermann and Lyle acted as Shaw’s advisers while they were still employed with Fortrend. Wollermann and Lyle had been employed by Fortrend since 2009 and 2012, respectively.

According to the suit, Shaw — which is backed by global financial group EFG International — used Fortrend’s information to send unsolicited welcome letters and made unsolicited phone calls to Fortrend clients using their confidential contact information.

The suit says that Shaw aided and abetted Wollermann and Lyle or was knowingly concerned in their unconscionable conduct, as well as their breaches of the terms of their employment and fiduciary and equitable duties to the company – including duties of confidentiality, non-solicitation, non-competition, and confidence.

The suit also alleges that shortly after tendering their resignations in November 2022, the pair destroyed company property by reformatting their work devices or otherwise deleting data, took “extended periods of sick leave,” and failed to assist with the training of their replacements and the transition of current clients to alternative staff as directed.

The company says it has lost and will continue to lose “significant commissions and fees” it would have earned from clients lost to Wollermann, Lyle and Shaw.

Lawyerly has contacted Shaw & Partners for comment.

The suit is seeking declarations, damages and compensation from Wollermann and Lyle, damages and/or an account of profits from Shaw and injunctions preventing all three from using the information, including by contacting or providing services to any person who was a client of Shaw or Fortrend on or before December 16.

In orders handed down on Monday, Justice Stewart Anderson ordered that Wollermann and Lyle hand up their personal mobile devices, computers, certain USB drives, and any other device or cloud storage platform storing Fortrend property to forensic IT company for inspection.

In an interlocutory application filed last week, Fortrend also sought that Wollermann, Lyle and Shaw produce any Fortrend property for inspection, including the contact details of clients, documents relating to the clients that Wollermann and Lyle acquired during their employment, a number of company accounts and templates.

Fortrend is also seeking orders preventing Lyle and Wollermann from conducting or being involved in any business competing with Fortrend, and from soliciting of interfering with any employee of Fortrend or its related company Fortrend Securities Inc or any person who was the company’s client on or before December 16 until June 16.

Fortrend seeks discovery of all correspondence between Lyle and Wollermann and any employee of Shaw and any of Fortrend’s clients, and the employment agreement between Shaw and Wollermann and Lyle. It is also issuing subpoenas to produce documents to clients solicited by the pair.

Fortrend says it has been contacted by clients concerned about the use of their information by Lyle and Wollermann.

Fortrend is represented by Corrs Chambers Westgarth. Shaw & Partners is represented by Seyfarth Shaw.

The case is Fortrend Securities Pty Ltd v Christopher James Wollermann & Ors.

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