Odeon Capital Sued Trader for Millions. It Now Owes Him $461,000

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When Odeon Capital Group LLC sought $5.6 million from its former head of corporate bond trading, it not only lost that battle — it wound up owing him money.

Now Mihir Patel is asking a judge to order Odeon to pay more than $461,000 that was awarded to him by a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel in January.

The New York-based broker alleged that Patel violated non-compete provisions of his employment contract in 2015 when he resigned his post and took a job at another firm, Auriga USA LLC, according to Odeon’s submission to FINRA. Odeon also accused Patel of violating non-solicitation provisions by encouraging four other employees to join him.

Patel fired back with counterclaims, alleging that he hadn’t broken the agreement and was denied commissions that Odeon owed him.

In a phone interview Monday, Patel said he left Odeon amid a dispute over the commission payment. There was a “war of words going back and forth,” and Patel was suspended, he said. While suspended, he found a new job at Auriga USA LLC, he said.

The panel rejected Odeon’s allegations, throwing out the brokerage’s demand for $5.6 million in damages from Patel and Auriga USA, according to filings Monday in New York state court in Manhattan. The panel also awarded Patel a portion of his commissions, as well as attorneys fees and costs for both Patel and Auriga USA. Representatives from Odeon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“I’m a little disappointed,” Patel said in the interview. “I was really hoping to get more than that.”