In a complaint filed in federal court in Atlanta, Goldmans claims that the investment managers were lured to Credit Suisse Securities USA by offers of “tens of millions of dollars”, in what amounted to an act of “pirating”, according to the report. Having opted to join Credit Suisse, David Greene, Craig Savage, Andrew Thompson, Sharran Srivatsaa, John Pitt, Stephanie Dennard and Kim Tyson then began to contact ex-clients in breach of their employment contracts at Goldmans, the complaint said.

The suit is an example of how defections by wealth managers has led to legal wrangles. In the UK, for example, a mass exodus of managers from UBS to the UK wealth management startup Vestra triggered a legal action by the Swiss bank against the new business, which was later resolved.

The investment managers resigned on 5 February and some Goldmans clients began to receive solicitations the next day, according to the filing.

Goldmans has sought a court order to prevent the former employees from attempting to recruit former clients and bar them from disclosing proprietary information.

Credit Suisse is not named in the suit, but Goldmans has filed an arbitration proceeding against Credit Suisse, the report said.

Both Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse declined to comment on the matter when contacted by WealthBriefing.