BlackRock Ex-Employee Sues Over Monitoring of Brokerage Accounts

Investment-management company BlackRock Inc. illegally monitored the financial accounts of former employees after they had left the company, a proposed federal class action said.

Armen Harcopian-Armen alleged that BlackRock monitored his personal stock-trading accounts for more than a year after the company laid him off, in violation of state and federal privacy laws and in breach of the company’s personal trading policy.

The company also monitored the accounts of his wife, co-plaintiff Lusine Hayrapetyan, and his minor daughter after his separation from the company, according to a complaint filed March 21 in the US District Court for the Southern District ...