Aon Risk Services Northeast Inc. has filed suit against Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. and several former employees, alleging they stole Aon clients, employees and trade secrets.

The New York-based unit of Aon Corp. filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and names Marsh & McLennan Inc., Marsh U.S.A. Inc., and three former employees -- Michael Kornblau, Tyler Wendleken and Karryn Angoff.

Aon claims the group illegally downloaded and disclosed trade secrets, and solicited Aon's business before the trio of employees quit in early February, according to the complaint. Each were employees of Aon's Trade Credit Group and each are now employed at Marsh, Aon said. The Trade Credit Group designs, arranges and negotiates credit insurance and finance packages, often along with political risk insurance, say court documents.

Kornblau was the Trade Credit Group's managing director for the East Coast for Aon and is accused of spearheading the alleged theft of clients and trade secrets with Marsh, said Aon. At some point prior to his Feb. 5 resignation from Aon, "Kornblau began conspiring with high level Marsh executives for the purpose of unlawfully soliciting Aon clients and employees to move to Marsh...by misusing Aon confidential and proprietary trade secret information," the suit states.

"We do not believe there is any merit to this litigation and are aggressively defending ourselves against the lawsuit," a spokesman for Marsh & McLennan said.

The redacted filing omits the amount of annual revenue that Aon alleges has already gone to Marsh since Kornblau, Wendleken and Angoff left Aon, which seeks damages and injunctive relief. Also redacted are the clients Marsh alleged stole from Aon.

(By Chad Hemenway, associate editor, BestWeek: Chad.Hemenway@ambest.com)