Lawsuit claims eXp knew about sexual assaults by ‘Alpha agents’ for years and did nothing — RISMedia

A woman suing brokerage giant eXp and several well-known recruiters has just added a barrage of new accusations and allegations to her lawsuit, claiming the company and its founder, Glenn Sanford, ignored extensive reports of sexual assault committed by two eXp agents – Michael Bjorkman and David Golden – despite Sanford’s public statements that eXp did not learn of the incidents until much later.

Anya Roberts, a former eXp agent who says she was drugged and assaulted by Golden and Bjorkman at two different company events, presented evidence that eXp was aware of Bjorkman and Golden’s alleged practice of abusing women as early as 2020. However, she claimed the company worked hard to protect the men while refusing to take action on multiple detailed reports of rape at company events.

An eXp spokesperson did not respond to detailed questions from RISMedia seeking clarification about when the company learned of Golden and Bjorkman’s alleged assaults, or about several other incidents cited in Roberts’ complaint, including a 2022 board meeting where a proposed plan to take action to address the assaults was ignored and a conference call with senior eXp agents who joked about the rape reports.

The case is the second of two closely related lawsuits filed by current or former eXp agents that make essentially the same allegations. The first lawsuit is tentatively scheduled to go to trial in 2025.

“eXp Realty does not tolerate abuse, harassment or misconduct of any kind – including by the independent real estate agents who use our services,” the spokesperson said.

The new lawsuit also reveals a lawsuit filed by Bjorkman against Sanford and eXp last April. The suit accuses him of breach of contract because the company refused to continue paying him revenue shares. But Roberts also claims she has evidence that eXp violated its own rules by paying Bjorkman more than a million dollars even after the allegations against him came to light.

Sanford has stated publicly on several occasions that eXp only learned of some of the allegations through court filings in early 2023, which Roberts says is not true. Reports of Bjorkman drugging and assaulting women date back more than a decade, according to the lawsuit.

Bjorkman did not immediately respond to a voicemail seeking comment. He remains a real estate agent in Ventura County. Golden did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Roberts himself left eXp, the real estate industry and the country due to “extreme emotional distress” caused by the assaults and the subsequent “pressure campaign” by Golden to recruit her into his “downline,” which would have allowed him to profit from her recruitment efforts for the company.

Roberts’ latest allegations join a long list of ugly, lurid revelations about corporate culture and practices at the mega-broker, particularly how the company handled complaints about Bjorkman and Golden. Both have denied any wrongdoing, although Sanford said on a 2023 conference call that the incidents involving the two were “on the wrong side of the law.”

Bjorkman was arrested in Las Vegas in 2021 and charged with sexual assault, but those charges were dropped. Plaintiffs in the first case accused another well-known eXp influencer, Brent Gove, of obstructing the investigation and inciting witnesses to give false statements to police.

eXp and Sanford were both dismissed from Roberts’ lawsuit last month because a judge ruled that she had not convincingly argued that either of them had “constructive knowledge” of Bjorkman and Golden’s repeated sexual assaults or that they profited from the men’s actions. The updated lawsuit seeks to address those “deficiencies,” Roberts’ attorney previously told RISMedia, and is said to be an attempt to hold Sanford and eXp liable under federal sex trafficking laws.

According to the updated lawsuit, eXp received a memo in October 2020 that described in “exhausting detail” how Golden and Bjorkman drugged and abused women. It also described how they exposed or shamed the women in order to get them to name one of the men as their “sponsor” in order to increase their revenue share through eXp’s complicated recruiting incentives.

That 11-page memo, which the lawsuit says was written by an unnamed “top” eXp agent, referenced several specific incidents involving Bjorkman and Golden that later surfaced in police reports and investigative reports, as well as previously unreported drug use – including overdoses – at company events.

“One week after eXp received a copy of the memo …, Sanford and Gove offered Bjorkman their encouragement and support rather than taking any action against him and Golden, ignoring the pleas of the targeted individuals who sought help from eXp, Sanford and Gove,” the complaint states.

Around the same time, eXp called a conference call with “Alpha agents” to discuss the “situation,” Roberts claimed. During that call, “several” participants joked about the allegations and made comments such as “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

Gove is a central figure in both cases. His downline makes up 80% of the entire revenue-sharing program, according to Roberts’ suit. Gove was also personally involved in numerous key incidents and pressured (or threatened) Sanford to protect Bjorkman, Roberts alleged.

Roberts also claimed that Gove continued to put pressure on her and sent messages to company agents she had recruited to personally denigrate her.

A lawyer representing Gove said he would make “no comment or statement on the claims or judgments” in the lawsuit.

Roberts also provided further details about an incident first reported by the New York Times: In 2022, an eXp board member called on the company to adopt a comprehensive plan to investigate reports of sexual assault and establish clear policies for this type of misconduct. That suggestion was “ignored,” according to Roberts, but in 2023, after the allegations became public, Sanford adopted “exactly the plan” that had previously been presented to him.

The board member who proposed the plan was not asked to return to the board, according to Roberts.

cause and effect

Both lawsuits attempt to link Bjorkman and Golden’s actions to the company as a whole, claiming that because of eXp’s emphasis on recruiting and revenue sharing, agents should be treated like employees rather than independent contractors.

They are also trying to prove that Sanford, eXp and other high-level recruiters profited from Bjorkman and Golden’s actions – a central point in the lawsuit because the federal sex trafficking law that Roberts and the other women are citing requires a tangible benefit for a person or company to be held liable.

eXp has repeatedly denied that the company or Sanford acted improperly and has promised to defend itself against the allegations in court.

In the first trial, a judge ruled that plaintiffs had made a compelling case that Sanford and eXp benefited from the “enterprise” Bjorkman and Golden allegedly used to recruit women for their downlines and could be sued. In Roberts’ trial, the connection wasn’t clear, the same judge said, and dropped Sanford and eXp — though he explicitly allowed them to add new allegations and evidence to reestablish that connection.

In the updated complaint, Roberts attempted to explain how Gove, Sanford and eXp were involved in her recruitment. She said Golden and Gove wanted to “poach” her from her original “sponsor” at the company in order to profit from her skills as a recruiter. Roberts herself, according to the suit, was looking for someone who could help her reach a higher level in the recruiting chain after she was limited by her original upline and region.

“Gove emphasized … that the only way to succeed at eXp was not to sell real estate, but rather to attract more people to eXp,” the lawsuit states. “Roberts felt stuck, and Golden and Gove offered her a solution.”

After the alleged assault, Roberts claims Golden aggressively pressured her to change sponsors, convincing the company to break the rules and allow her to name him as her new sponsor.

Roberts never ended up signing with Golden, but the lawsuit alleges that including Roberts in its “revenue-sharing group” helped make her an “alpha agent… who disproportionately generates revenue for eXp’s revenue-sharing plan, of which Gove and Sanford are two of the primary beneficiaries.”

Although Roberts was already in Gove’s downline, she claims another top eXp agent essentially prevented her from reaching certain recruiting milestones, and without the support of another top agent (like Golden), Roberts would not have been able to generate that revenue.

According to the lawsuit, less than 0.3% of eXp agents receive more than half of the income generated by the revenue sharing program, with “alpha agents” earning an average of $215,000 a month. In 2022, there were only 61 agents in that category, out of a total of over 80,000 working for the company, according to Roberts. Three-quarters of eXp agents pay more in fees to eXp than they receive in revenue sharing, with the average agent outside the “alpha” group earning $625 a month, Roberts alleged.

The other important point, besides benefit, is the relationship between eXp agents and the company. Roberts argues that Sanford and eXp should be considered employers of Bjorkman and Golden because they act as recruiters rather than real estate agents. This would be a significant departure from the current treatment of real estate agents under the law, as independent contractor status brings with it very different rules and responsibilities.

“Bjorkman and Golden were required to be licensed real estate agents, but no special skills in multi-level marketing recruiting were required,” Roberts argued. “The services provided by Golden and Bjorkman as ‘Alpha (A)gents’ were an integral part of the eXp business model… (o)n this role, eXp and its multi-level marketing model fails.”

The lawsuit notes that eXp agents are automatically enrolled in the revenue-sharing program and top recruiters have “managerial” responsibilities. It also notes that agents are required to use company branding and marketing materials.