JOHN REID BLACKWELL TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

A lawsuit claims that BB&T Corp.’s Richmond-based investment banking subsidiary, Scott & Stringfellow LLC, conspired to take trade secrets when it recruited several employees from a competitor’s Richmond office.

Stephens Inc., a Little Rock, Ark.-based investment banking firm, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Richmond last week. It names Winston Salem, N.C.-based BB&T Corp. and Scott & Stringfellow as defendants.

Five of Stephens Inc.’s former employees — Thomas S. Albrecht, Kevin Sterling, Bradley D. Shiveley, Edward “Neal” Deaton and Alfred Rhem Wood Jr. — also are named as defendants.

The lawsuit claims that the men, who worked as a team of transportation industry analysts for Stephens Inc., violated their confidentiality agreements with the firm when they were recruited to join BB&T starting in May, after BB&T’s own chief transportation industry analyst left the company.

Attorneys for the five analysts declined to comment yesterday. A spokeswoman for Scott & Stringfellow referred questions to a BB&T corporate spokesman. A phone message left for the spokesman yesterday was not returned.

The lawsuit claims 12 counts against BB&T and the analysts, including business conspiracy, breach of contract and unfair competition. Among those charges, the lawsuit accuses the analysts, while they were still employed by Stephens, of contacting the firm’s clients and prospective clients to solicit them to move their business to BB&T, which was “aware and actively involved in these activities.”

Stephens also accuses the analysts of copying and removing proprietary electronic and print documents from its office for use by BB&T. One of the defendants, Wood, has returned three boxes of documents to Stephens but still has electronic records, according to the lawsuit.

Stephens fired Albrecht, Sterling, Shiveley and Wood on July 7, and Deaton resigned on July 8, the lawsuit says. Albrecht, Sterling, Shiveley and Deaton have since been employed by BB&T with a collective compensation package “believed to be in excess of $1.5 million” a year, the lawsuit says.

Stephens is seeking a court order against further use of its proprietary information. It also is seeking monetary and punitive damages.

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