Aon secures temporary restraining order against Howden, pending hearing

A US district judge has temporarily restricted Howden US Service from soliciting and recruiting Aon employees after finding “good cause” to act, pending a hearing.

The order was issued on 12 December 2025 after Aon filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.

In turn, defendants Anthony Rampersaud, Nancy Montalvo and Howden have been ordered to show cause against this motion before the United States Courthouse on 18 December 2025 at 2:30pm.

This follows a complaint filed by broker Aon to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on 11 December 2025 alleging that former executives Rampersaud and Montalvo, as part of Howden US Services, orchestrated a coordinated staff departure and attempted to remove confidential client and financial data while breaching contractual and fiduciary duties.

Pending the 18 December 2025 hearing, Howden has been temporarily restricted from soliciting, recruiting or otherwise inducing any Aon employees they previously supervised, contacted or had confidential information about to leave Aon for Rampersaud or Howden.

The court has also temporarily restricted Howden and the defendants from soliciting, engaging with or performing ”any business of the same type or kind as the business the defecting employees performed for Aon, from or with respect to clients of Aon with respect to whom Rampersaud, Montalvo, or the defecting employees worked or became familiar, or supervised the servicing activities related to such clients during the 24 months prior to November 25, 2025”.

This is in response to Aon’s central allegations that Rampersaud copied and attempted to remove documents with confidential information including revenue projections and account data, from a “top secret” folder before resigning.

The complaint also alleged that Montalvo emailed a client list of 55 names to her personal email account the day before resigning.

In turn, the defendants have been ordered to return all Aon documents and materials in their possession including any containing confidential client, financial or employee information.

Rampersaud has also been required to hand in his Aon-issued mobile phone with its passcode.

Handing over evidence

Meanwhile, the plaintiffs, Aon Risk Services Companies and Aon Risk Services Northeast, have been required by the court to submit the court order and supporting papers to the defendants.

These papers were ordered to be personally handed over before 5pm on 12 December 2025 as part of its request for a preliminary injunction.

The defendants were also ordered to file a response to the request for a preliminary injunction by 17 December 2025. The plaintiff then had until 18 December at noon to reply.

According to Aon’s complaint, seven employees including Rampersaud and Montalvo resigned on 25 November 2025 within hours of each other and gave assurances on the morning of their resignations that they were not leaving Aon.

It was later revealed that both former employees had already accepted new positions at Howden.

Aon further alleged that on 21 November 2025, seven boxes containing client schedules, confidential documents, benchmarking data and revenue information for over 80 clients were shipped from its New York office to Rampersaud’s home using Aon’s FedEx account.

The firm said it intercepted the shipment of boxes and that five of the shipping labels allegedly listed another Aon employee as the recipient, despite being addressed to Rampersaud’s home.

All allegations cited have been taken from Aon’s published complaint. There has been no official ruling made at the time of writing.