Brokerage Acrisure has filed a federal lawsuit, accusing a former employee of using employees and intellectual property to peal away at least 50 clients to a company he started—named after one Acrisure acquired in 2016.
The Grand Rapids, Michigan-based global broker said in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan that Adam DeVone is “actively infringing upon” Acrisure trademarks and is “breaching voluntarily assumed contractual obligations to Acrisure.”
In October 2016, Acrisure bought Benefits Exchange Alliance Inc. from founder and chairman DeVone and other owners. The acquisition included all trademark rights and brandings, including derivatives such as “BXA” referred to as “BXA Marks,” said Acrisure. According to the suit, DeVone stayed on as an Acrisure employee and was most recently an independent contractor until that agreement ended on April 1.
However, in early May, DeVone emailed Acrisure to inform it that about 50 customers has chosen a new company he created—BXA Global Insurance Services, Inc.—to represent them. A day later, he requested broker-of-record documents for another five clients leaving for “BXA Global,” alleged Acrisure.
“DeVone is of course free to venture back out on his own and attempt to compete in the same marketplace as Acrisure, but he must do so fairly and lawfully,” Acrisure said in the suit filed May 7. Yet, teh new company he created “literally uses the same letters that Acrisure uses today and that DeVone sold to Acrisure nearly ten years ago.”
On June 2, DeVone answered Acrisure’s allegations that he is trying to “steal back” a company, denying that he is infringing upon any trademarks or breached contract obligations. He said he informed Acrisure’s president of retail sometime in March that he would be starting a new brokerage named BXA Global.
DeVone alleged Acrisure “abandoned any right it may once have held in the so-called BXA Marks,” and BXA Marks did not become the property of Acrisure after its 2016 acquisition of Benefits Exchange Alliance Inc.
As to Acrisure’s claim within its lawsuit that it “provides intelligence-driven financial services solutions,” DeVone said he “lacks knowledge and information sufficient to form a belief as to whether Acrisure’s financial services solutions are ‘intelligence driven.’”
Other Recent Lawsuits Against Past Business Sellers
Separately, Acrisure has filed suits in the same venue against Stephan Plotzker and Peter Freska, Stephen Plotzker and Hakop “Jack” Papazyan.
Freska sold his business, The LBL Group, and wholly-owned subsidiary Nautilus Insurance Services, to Acrisure in 2016. Acrisure alleged Freska, while still employed by Acrisure, “has taken concrete steps to compete with Acrisure on behalf of [BXA Global] by interfering with Acrisure’s efforts to retain customers of Acrisure’s BXA team that are now being solicited by [BXA Global].”
Freska was terminated on May 27, the same day Acrisure filed its lawsuit.
Plotzker resigned from Acrisure on April 14. The next day Acrisure filed a lawsuit alleging Plotzker, who sold his Bridgeport Insurance Brokers, Inc. business to Acrisure in 2015, solicited other employees in breach of contract to leave and work for an unnamed competitor.
In the suit against Papazyan, filed mid April, Acrisure alleged he too left for a competitor in violation of contracts with several of his team members after resigning on or about April 9. Papazyan sold his business Gain Insurance Agency to Acrisure in 2020.
Acisure was awarded a preliminary injunction against Papazyan on May 26, with the court finding that Papazyan will cause immediate and irreparable injury to Acrisure.
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