A former LPL Financial investment adviser who left the firm under a cloud last year after being accused of racism on TikTok is taking legal action against the giant brokerage, with the adviser, Eileen Cure, last week filing a lawsuit in federal court in Texas alleging LPL "disparaged" and "defamed" her and looted her $55 million book of clients.
Cure is suing LPL for $95 million in damages. At the center of the complaint is the disclosure of a conversation Cure had in July 2021 about a job applicant, who was Black, and who had been interviewed for a position at the firm, which is based in Nederland, Texas.
At the time, two of Cure's 21 employees were Black, according to the complaint; 18 were white and one was Hispanic. Cure has an accounting practice along with the wealth management operation.
The conversation Cure had was with an employee of her accounting firm, Cure & Associates, and held via Skype, according to the lawsuit.
Cure puts the onus of not hiring a Black job applicant on her clients, according to the complaint.
"In this written exchange, Cure wrote to her office manager, 'I specifically said no blacks," according to the complaint. "I’m not a prejudiced person, but our clients are 90 percent white, and I need to cater to them, so that interview was a complete waste of my time."
Cure, who is registered as an investment adviser with Wealth Management of Kentucky Inc., did not return a call Monday afternoon to comment. A spokesperson for LPL also did not return a call to comment.
A different employee took a photo of that message on the screen and later sent it to a social media personality on TikTok after the employee had been reprimanded by Cure for mishandling a client appointment, according to the complaint.
That TikTok exposure turned into a social media storm, and days later in August 2021, Cure's language was the focus of a TikTok personality Denise Bradley, who goes by the TikTok handle auntkaren0 and has more than 1 million followers. Bradley built her following by posting daily examples of alleged racism on the popular video platform.
Bradley posted a series of videos regarding Cure’s alleged discriminatory hiring practices, which showed the Skype messages from Cure saying to her staff the above cited message: "I specifically said no blacks."
The TikTok user published LPL’s name and mentioned Cure’s role as an adviser, according to the complaint, and LPL terminated its relationship with Cure and her wealth management firm, Premier, on August 26, 2021.
Through various statements to news organizations, including InvestmentNews, LPL “disparaged" Premier’s business, "defamed" Cure’s reputation, and actively and successfully worked to destroy her ability to work as a general securities representative, according to the complaint. LPL was "casting her in a dark and negative light, flagging her license without just cause or lawful basis, preventing Cure from retaining her book of business, and enriching" LPL, Cure's complaint alleges.
[Read more: BlackRock enters the TikTok sphere]
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