The Broker Giveth, The Firm Taketh Away?

Former broker Evan Cole claims he was fired by UBS just so the brokerage could get its hands on his clients’ book.

Former broker Evan Cole claims he was fired by UBS just so the brokerage could get its hands on his books. According to The New York Post, Cole, the younger brother of designer Kenneth Cole, claims UBS isn’t alone in this practice. “They keep your book, and don’t have to pay you six-figures anymore,” Cole the younger told the Post. “Your book goes to one of the bigger boys.”

UBS, in a filing with the NASD, says Cole resigned voluntarily. But the former broker told The Post the brokerage “rigged its paperwork” in the document filed with the regulator. He claims he was let go because they accused him of paying off a client – his former partner Art Malkin‘s widow – for her business. Cole claims that in reality the deal was part of an agreement he made with Malkin, with whom he ran the UBS office in Manalapan, N.J. According to their arrangement, whenever one of them died, the other would continue to pay survivor benefits to their surviving spouses. Because the Malkins had an $800,000 account at UBS, the Post reports, his widow was “technically a client.”
“UBS twists an act of charity into saying I was giving her illegal ‘rebates’, and they fired me,” Cole told The Post. An arbitration hearing is scheduled for Tuesday to resolve the matter