Fired Securities Analyst Sues Donald Trump
Marvin B. Roffman, the securities analyst fired for his remarks about Donald J. Trump’s new casino, sued the real estate tycoon Tuesday, claiming that Trump made defamatory comments about him.
Roffman also filed an action before an arbitration panel of the New York Stock Exchange, charging that he had been wrongfully dismissed by the Philadelphia brokerage firm, Janney Montgomery Scott Inc., his attorney said.
The suit filed in U.S. District Court seeks more than $2 million from Trump for defamation and wrongful interference in Roffman’s employment.
He is asking more than $3 million from Janney Montgomery Scott on three counts of wrongful dismissal, defamation and infliction of mental distress.
Martin Sobol, Roffman’s attorney, said his client believes he was fired from his job because “he was honest.”
“He feels he was wronged,” Sobol said.
Roffman declined to comment. John Barry, a Trump spokesman, declined to comment until he had seen the suit.
Roffman, 50, a vice president at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia, was fired March 23 over his negative critique of Trump’s Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City, N.J.
Roffman told the Wall Street Journal in March 20 editions that the casino would flourish just after it opened in April, but “once the cold winds blow from October to February, it won’t make it. The market just isn’t there.”
According to the lawsuit, Trump sent a letter to Janney Montgomery President Norman T. Wilde that said, “For a long while I have thought of Mr. Roffman as an unguided missile.”
In his suit, Roffman said Trump’s letter “contained false and defamatory material because . . . Roffman’s statements in the Wall Street Journal were not outrageous; he is not an unguided missile, unprofessional . . . and a bad analyst.”
Trump threatened Janney Montgomery with a lawsuit unless Roffman publicly retracted the comments or the firm fired the 16-year veteran securities analyst. Roffman initially signed a letter of apology, but took it back in a second letter and was fired.
Janney Montgomery contended that he was fired because he violated company policy by issuing statements to the press that had not been cleared and that had not been disseminated to the firm’s clients.
Janney Montgomery is a wholly owned subsidiary of Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co.
