UPDATE: Capital One Sues BankUnited CEO John Kanas
July 14 2011 - 7:20PM
Dow Jones News
Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) is taking its former head of
banking, John Kanas, to court.
Kanas, now the chairman and chief executive of BankUnited Inc.
(BKU), agreed not to compete with Capital One in the New York
market when he left his former employer, according to disclosures
from both companies. BankUnited agreed in June to buy Herald
National Bank (HNB) of New York.
Capital One alleged in a suit filed Thursday in the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia that Kanas
violated the noncompete agreement with the Herald deal and other
action, and asked the court to enforce it.
The bank also sued John Bohlsen, BankUnited's vice chairman and
chief lending officer. Bohlsen led Capital One's commercial banking
business and the suit said he too is part of a noncompete
agreement.
A spokeswoman for Capital One said Kanas and Bohlsen "received
compensation in exchange for their clear promise not to engage in
competitive actions" in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey until
August 2012. "We fully support legitimate competition in the
banking industry, but we expect non-compete agreements negotiated
in good faith to be honored in full."
Kanas said, "I have always lived by the terms of my agreement
with Capital One and intend to continue to do so." Bohlsen couldn't
immediately be reached for comment.
Kanas was chairman and chief executive of North Fork Bancorp.;
Bohlsen was also an executive at North Fork. Kanas was instrumental
in first expanding, and then selling the Melville, N.Y., bank in
2006 to Capital One. He initially stayed with his new employer.
Kanas left in August 2007, and in 2008 started to pursue
struggling BankUnited in Florida, which failed in 2009 and was
bought from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. by a group of
private-equity investors led by Kanas.
-By Matthias Rieker, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2471;
matthias.rieker@dowjones.com
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