A broker who spent more than a decade with Merrill Lynch in Atlanta can erase “defamatory” allegations the wirehouse left on her public BrokerCheck record, according to an arbitration award finalized on Tuesday.
Merrill had reported that Ava Arjmand, who left in 2019 for Rockefeller Capital Management, resigned after allegations of “conduct involving alteration of a client document,” according to her BrokerCheck, which did not yet reflect the expungement.
The arbitrator found that the disclosure portrayed Arjmand, who since left Rockefeller and worked at three RIAs, in “a negative light.” The arbitrator recommended that her record reflect only a voluntary departure and all other information be cleared from her record.
The arbitrator did not provide further explanation. Arjmand in a comment appended to her BrokerCheck acknowledged altering a client document but with proper authorization.
“I made the change to the document at issue with the client’s specific authorization and with her full approval to correct the authorization executed before an investment in the account went ex-dividend,” Arjmand wrote in the comment.
She added: “The client was traveling at the time, and I did this in order to prevent her from violating the terms of asset distribution required by her divorce decree. I did not profit in any way from this action.”
Arjmand’s lawyer, David Harrison of Bakhtiari & Harrison in Studio City, California, said his client didn’t know Merrill was conducting the investigation until after she had already agreed to move to Rockefeller and leave the thundering herd.
The lawyer said he presented as evidence at the hearing an affidavit from the customer whose document Merrill had alleged had an “alteration” which stated that she had authorized Arjmand to make the change.
Harrison also said he also submitted documentary evidence that she was unable to find a job at another wirehouse because of the disclosure.
Asked why his client didn’t also seek damages with her defamation claim, Harrison said expungement was the goal and seeking damages could have reduced her odds of winning.
After leaving Merrill, Arjmand remained at Rockefeller for only two months and then registered with Edge Capital Group in Atlanta for almost two years. She left in 2023 and last spring joined Summit Financial in Brookhaven, Georgia, before joining her current firm, Advocacy Wealth Management, in Atlanta. The RIA oversees more than $2 billion in assets, according to a Form ADV from November.
A Merrill spokesperson declined to comment.