A unit of the major UK/Hong Kong-listed bank, HSBC, is suing Safra National Bank of New York for allegedly poaching seven bankers responsible for $4 billion in private banking assets and attempting to steal clients, a court hearing revealed on Wednesday.

According to the online publication Law360, HSBC Private Bank International sued Safra and five former HSBC employees, who worked in a division that provided wealth management services for high net worth clients in Central America. The bankers allegedly conspired to help the Brazilian banking group, Safra, build a Latin American private banking business to compete directly with HSBC.

“The employee defendants stole HSBC PBI's client files, business, marketing and strategy documents, employee compensation information and other non-public financial and business information,” HSBC said in the suit.

HSBC said that Manuel Diaz and Jose Ortega, the former and current presidents of the firm's Latin American private banking business, had been talking with Safra about helping the competitor build a Latin American business since May 2013.

The bank aims to prove this by stressing Diaz and Ortega’s uncharacteristic night and weekend visits to the office, where both of them emptied their file cabinets, drawers and desks prior to leaving the firm.

According to the law suit, Safra met with at least 11 HSBC employees and offered each of them a job with a better compensation package. As a result, Diaz resigned on June 25 and was followed two weeks later by his former assistant. Ortega and six other employees resigned between July 15 and July 31.

“With the confidential client and business documents stolen, and the seven key employees in the Central American group, Safra is poised to immediately and illegally steal HSBC PBI's business in Central America, raid its clients and replicate its business strategies,” HSBC said in the court documents.

In addition to Diaz and Ortega, the lawsuit names former HSBC bankers Jorge Hine, Jessica Valera and Diana Saludes as defendants.

HSBC said each of the bankers signed employment contracts that included non-compete clauses preventing them from working for a competitor, soliciting an employee or soliciting a client for 90 days.

So far, Safra has not chosen to comment on the lawsuit, which since Wednesday, has been handled by the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida. This publication has also contacted HSBC, which currently does not wish to comment on the lawsuit.