‘Serial killer-level crazy’: Former Ameritrade advisor wages war against Schwab with allegations

Trader Talk

When Cortney Kotzian walked into TD Ameritrade in Omaha, Nebraska, to discuss moving into a new role, she felt excited about a fresh opportunity.

Kotzian, 38, had been working in sales at the giant brokerage for more than a year and a half. She’d won a promotion and an “employee of the month” award. But after she asked pointed questions about compensation, HR ordered her to transfer to a different department. So that November in 2018, she sat down for an interview with Samuel Kimbril and his boss, both of whom managed a TD Ameritrade team that worked on retirement plans and health savings accounts.

Minutes into the interview, Kotzian felt uncomfortable. Kimbril, she recalled, would repeatedly scribble notes on a sheet of paper, raise the leaf over his nose, then stare at her at length. “I remember thinking, I should not have put on makeup and curled my hair,” she recalled. “He was very much sizing me up.” Kimbril’s female boss, Desere Johns, showed no reaction.

Cortney Kotzian said she won't remain silent.

Cortney Kotzian alleged that a former male colleague harassed her and that Ameritrade did nothing to stop it.

Cortney Kotzian

Kotzian got the job. A female colleague of Kimbril became her supervisor. Then things got creepy.

In interviews with Financial Planning, Kotzian alleged that over 30 months through May 2021, when she was fired, she endured harassment by Kimbril and retaliatory behavior by the brokerage’s HR department.

Kimbril left Ameritrade in May 2020, but over 19 months, he touched her and her desk objects repeatedly, stole her desk plant and threatened to zip tie her and undress her. Senior colleagues warned her to keep silent about the behavior, but she complained to HR on multiple occasions. Last May, Kotzian was fired after managers and HR deemed her previously outstanding work to be riddled with unspecified “errors.”

No one, including Kotzian, apparently knew that Kimbril had been arrested for sexually assaulting a child in 2016, which was his eighth year of employment at Ameritrade. The brokerage was acquired by Charles Schwab in October 2020.

Kotzian’s story highlights the persistent harassment that women face in the workforce, particularly on Wall Street and in financial services.

Gloria Allred, a celebrity lawyer who represented the family of O.J. Simpson’s slain wife, Nicole Simpson, and women who sued convicted rapist and Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, said that “because this industry is still male-dominated, sex harassment is still pervasive and often severe.”

While Allred said she couldn’t comment on Kotzian’s allegations, she added that “women in this industry are very vulnerable to sexual harassment, but many are showing their courage by going to lawyers to learn their rights.”

In 2019, an Investment News survey showed that nearly 80% of financial advisors called sexual harassment a problem for the industry. A 2017 academic study in the journal Gender & Society found that nearly eight in ten women who experienced unwanted touching or repeated harassing behaviors left their jobs within two years, compared to 54 percent of women who did not experience harassment.

Amid the #MeToo era, Kotzian’s allegations also underscore the power of social media to surface unsavory behavior that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. In a TikTok video on Sept. 25 that has so far garnered 3 million views, Kotzian said that “threatening a woman, to tie her up, is serial killer-level crazy.”

When Kotzian posted several weeks ago on social media about her disturbing encounters with Kimbril, Schwab CEO Walter Bettinger noticed. Almost immediately, he wrote on Kotzian’s public LinkedIn page that “Harassment is unacceptable at Schwab. We have a zero-tolerance policy. We will investigate and take appropriate action.” He has repeated that post several times on Kotzian’s page.

Schwab CEO Walter Bettinger has stepped into Kotzian's war on social media.

Schwab CEO Walter Bettinger has stepped into Kotzian’s war on social media.

Bloomberg News

One thing Bettinger, Schwab and industry regulators apparently didn’t know, and possibly still don’t: On July 20, 2016, Kimbril was booked in Omaha’s Douglas County jail for sexual assault of a child, according to usbondsmen.com, a marketing and directory service website that tracks police and court filings. The assault, his first such offense in the state, is a third-degree felony under Nebraska law.

It’s unknown what happened next, because the case was sealed, said Kotzian, who only recently learned of the arrest. It’s also unclear how, why or at whose behest the case was sealed. There’s no record of his conviction on the charges. The Omaha police department didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment. Kimbril doesn’t appear on Nebraska’s sex offender registry.

A ‘review’
Financial advisors and brokers are required by their regulator, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, to disclose any criminal history, along with customer complaints, arbitration claims, regulatory proceedings or civil matters that settle for more than $15,000. But the honor system relies on self reporting, and some advisors hide messy details. In any case, advisors don’t have to disclose an arrest if no formal legal charges were subsequently filed.

Kotzian was a long-time professional pastry chef who ran her own bakery in Omaha before she decided to switch careers. In 2016, she went to work for American Family Insurance as a specialist. In a disconnect that shows how regulators don’t sync up, FINRA’s BrokerCheck says Kotzian has passed six exams, but the SEC’s directory lists only one exam. Kotzian said she had passed six exams. She has an unblemished BrokerCheck record.

Kimbril left TD Ameritrade in May 2020 after 12 years for a job at Boston Mutual Life Insurance in Omaha as an “innovation consultant,” according to his LinkedIn profile, which he has since taken down. He has no violations or disciplinary actions on his BrokerCheck profile, which doesn’t show him as working for Boston Mutual. He’s no longer registered as a broker or advisor with FINRA. Calls and emails to Boston Mutual were not returned. Efforts to reach Kimbril were not successful.

Asked whether Schwab knew about Kimbril’s 2016 arrest, company spokeswoman Mayura Hooper said in an emailed statement that the brokerage “cannot discuss current or former employees, but Schwab takes its regulatory and compliance obligations seriously.” She wrote that “the company took (Kotzian’s) allegations seriously and investigated her concerns at that time.” Hooper’s statement added that “Ms. Kotzian’s statements relate to conduct that allegedly occurred prior to Schwab’s acquisition of TD Ameritrade.”

Hooper also wrote that Schwab had hired law firm Kutak Rock to conduct an independent review of Kotzian’s allegations. “Counsel intends to speak with Ms. Kotzian directly, review her allegations and review the company’s investigation in response,” her statement for Schwab said.

There’s a lot to review, according to Kotzian — and early questions over whether that review would be impartial.

The sequined sweater and purloined plant
On the first day of her new role that November 2018, Kotzian stayed late to organize her new desk. Kimbril stayed late, too.

“He came over and cornered me in my cubicle,” Kotzian recalled. “I couldn’t leave it without pushing him aside.”

Days later, Kotzian’s then-fiance, who also worked at TD Ameritrade but in a different department, brought her a flowering plant for her desk. Kimbril “became obsessed with my plant,” Kotzian said.

Though Kimbril wasn’t her manager, he paid particular attention to the new face on his floor: “He would come over and touch the plant, and said, ‘it’s against the rule to have potted plants on the desk.’” Kotzian checked Ameritrade’s employee manual and found that wasn’t true. But Kimbril persisted, asking her on several occasions if she had watered the plant and whether it was getting enough light. “It was just a reason to talk to me,” Kotzian concluded.

In the days before Christmas 2018, employees wore ugly festive sweaters to work. Kotzian’s gray crewneck top had red and white sequins that spelled out “naughty” or “nice,” depending on how she had flipped them, on the front. As colleagues joked about whose sweater was tackiest, Kotzian felt like she was being watched.

“Sam was lurking around, trying to chat with me, and was staring at me,” she recalled. “He asked if the sequins moved, and he reached over to touch them.” Kotzian’s manager, Kate Sierra, quickly shooed him away.

One month later, Kotzian took paid time off for a vacation in Mexico with her then-fiance and his family. When she returned to the office, she noticed that her plant was missing. Kimbril confessed that he had taken the plant home and was photographing it.

In December 2018, junior colleagues urged her to report the holiday sweater episode to HR. But senior colleagues told her to keep quiet. Kimbril’s manager, Johns, said, “‘just tell him to back off and not touch you,’” Kotzian recalled. “She was coaching me to train him like a puppy.”

Kotzian said her direct manager, Sierra, “warned me not to complain about Samuel, because when other people had done that,” another manager had “made their life more difficult.” Kotzian said that whenever Kimbril was near her desk, the roughly half dozen men on her team in the area “all put their ear buds in immediately and tuned out. They didn’t want to be a part of it.”

Kotzian, a single mother to a 13-year-old son, earned a promotion in June 2019. She studied at night to take two licensing exams to add to her existing four licenses.

Kimbril, she said, seemed to “cool it for a while.” In Oct. 2019, Kotzian’s manager Sierra nominated her for Ameritrade’s “Better Begins With Me” award, writing a glowing letter that praised her accomplishments, including designing a process for training new employees.

Zip ties
Then things exploded. The day before Thanksgiving, Kotzian declined a company-wide option to don a sweatshirt for a “wear a hoodie to work” day, instead putting on a dark blue plaid shirt. Kimbril noticed immediately.

“Couldn’t you borrow one from that man you live with?” Kotzian recalled him asking. “I was like, ‘I’m not borrowing his clothes.’ And he was like, ‘well, what kind of clothes do you have?’”

Kimbril suggested that Kotzian buy an Ameritrade-logoed hoodie at the on-site company store. She could, he said, use paid time off or corporate “points” to pay for it. Kotzian thought, enough. “I said, ‘Listen, I don’t own a hoodie. I’m not going to buy a hoodie. I’m not going to borrow a hoodie, and you can’t make me wear a hoodie.’“

What Kimbril said next shocked her.

“He said, ‘Yes, I can’,” Kotzian recalled. “‘I can get your address out of PeopleSoft’ — Ameritrade’s internal employee directory — ‘and come to your house on Friday. I’m going to zip tie you to a dining room chair, take off your shirt and dress you in a hoodie.’”

Kotzian was shaken. She said she fired back, “That crossed the line. That is extremely creepy. You need to leave me alone.” Kimbril, she said, replied, “How was that creepy? What part?”

In the months after the hoodie episode, Kotzian said Kimbril was “following me around the office. He pops out of nowhere and tries to force me to give him a high five.” He would also “squeeze your shoulder or poke you on one shoulder and pop out on the other side. He was very hands-y.” Colleagues joked that Kimbril was like Michael from “The Office.”

Later, when Kotzian told her colleagues she’d adopted a chow chow puppy, Kimbril’s boss Johns suggested that Kotzian use zip ties to train the puppy.

“‘You know, there’s a lot of uses of zip ties — you can use them on electrical stuff, you can use them on this …,’” Kotzian recalled Johns saying. “She was trying to normalize zip ties and was talking extremely loudly.”

Kotzian said Kimbril started using the paper shredder near her desk, not the one near his own. Spooked, Kotzian and a female colleague alerted corporate security, who observed through cameras that Kimbril would touch objects on her desk when she wasn’t there. At home after work, Kotzian noticed that Kimbril was checking her LinkedIn profile. He also sent her a Facebook invitation. She didn’t accept it.

The desk moved next to hers
In February 2020, maintenance workers came into the open floor space and began re-arranging employees’ desks. When things were finished, Kimbril was placed directly between Kotzian and a female colleague who Kotzian said had also reported him for sexual harassment against herself.“This was just dangerous.”

And unpleasant. One day during lunch, Kotzian said, Kimbril “re-assembled” his desk so that it directly faced both women. “His computer screen was in front of the glare of the window,” Kotzian recalled. Kotzian’s female colleague said, “‘you can’t even see your computer screen!’” Kimbril replied, ‘Yeah, but I can see everything else better.’”

Kotzian called HR — again. “I said, ‘this is dangerous. You gave this person close physical access to these two particular women.’”

On March 4, 2020, Kotzian emailed HR to say that “I am concerned that TD Ameritrade is not taking threats and harassment against low-ranking employees like myself seriously, and it seems to be emboldening the accused to continue the inappropriate and intimidating behavior.” Kotzian added in the email that she had adopted her dog“for the purposes of personal safety” and installed a Ring doorbell.

That May, Kimbril left the firm. In April 2021, Kotzian learned that TD Ameritrade had placed her on a “do-not-hire” list as it worked to complete its merger with Schwab. She decided to leave the brokerage to pursue a career in coding. On May 6, 2021, she was fired.

Kotzian has refused to remain silent with her allegations.

Kotzian has refused to remain silent with her allegations.

Cortney Kotzian

Kotziak recalled a flattering comment from Kimbril’s manager, Johns, who had sat in on her initial job interview in 2018. Johns, Kotzian said, later told her that she was “a force to be reckoned with.”

‘Boys’ club atmosphere’
Susan Crumiller, a lawyer and founder of Crumiller & Co. in New York, which calls itself “a feminist litigation firm dedicated to fighting harassment, discrimination and abuse,” said that “the boys’ club atmosphere in brokerages is still alive and well.” She added that brokerages “often settle these kinds of cases quietly to keep their reputation intact, so there is no doubt that there are many more cases which have been put to rest with the vast amounts of money available to these companies.”

FINRA requires that brokers with grievances against their employers sort them out through arbitration, but that rule doesn’t apply to cases involving employment discrimination, including sexual harassment. While Wells Fargo ended forced arbitration in 2020, most other brokerages have yet to follow suit. Most cases typically settle with a gag order known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA.

Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor who sued then-Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes in 2016 for sexual harassment, helped launch the #MeToo movement. (Carlson’s own settlement with Fox News is confidential due to an NDA.) In an Oct. 13 podcast in which she interviewed Kotzian, Carlson said she hoped the outside law firm Schwab had engaged to review Kotzian’s allegations “is not a typical counsel that companies sometimes hire that whitewash(s) everything.”

Later that day, a lawyer at Kutak Rock, the law firm Schwab engaged to probe Kotziak’s allegations, posted a request on Kotzian’s LinkedIn profile for her to “please direct all further communications with us through” a private channel “to maintain the integrity of the investigation, we are unable to comment about the allegations or any of the relevant evidence. We take our responsibility seriously and will render unbiased conclusions.”

Kutak Rock has already done legal work for TD Ameritrade, including representing the brokerage in an $850 million bank loan in 2019 and in a case brought by investors over its alleged practice of accepting rebates from market makers in exchange for sending them buy and sell orders. The controversial scheme, known as payment for order flow, means that an investor might not get the best price for her trade. Last April, an appeals court overturned a lower court’s class certification of the investors suing TD Ameritrade. The practice fuels a chunk of revenue at Schwab — $621 million in 2020, around 6% of its net revenue, according to its annual report.

Kotzian filed a case against Schwab with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Oct. 13, and said that she would not sign an NDA with the brokerage. “I will take this all the way to litigation,” Kotzian said, “if it takes three or four years.”

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