In a pair of court filings last week, eXp Realty, former CEO Glenn Sanford and agent Brent Gove renewed denials of their alleged roles in sexual assaults perpetrated by two former eXp agents.
Responding to an amended complaint filed by plaintiff Anya Roberts in June, each party denied the charge of participating in a human trafficking enterprise that resulted in the alleged drugging and rape of Roberts by Michael Bjorkman and David Golden, who at the time were star agents at eXp.
eXp and Sanford also denied charges that didn’t include Gove. Roberts alleges that the company and its CEO engaged in negligent hiring and supervision. Roberts claims that leadership at the company ignored and even fostered a culture of “rampant” drugging for the purpose of sexual assaults.
The complaint reads that eXp and Sanford ”at worst knew of, encouraged, and permitted abhorrent behavior; or at the least, recklessly disregarded, and willfully turned a blind eye to things that are on the wrong side of the law.”
Prior to the alleged assaults, Roberts said that Golden and Bjorkman aggressively pushed her to join their revenue share downline team at eXp, as the pair would financially benefit from her moving over given she was a high-earning agent. She claims she was lured in by the pair with promises of career advancement.
The incident at the center of the allegations was a recruiting event hosted by Gove in February 2020, a sunset cruise that Gove dubbed “Freedom Summit.” Roberts alleges that Golden’s girlfriend, Emily Keenan, placed a pill in her mouth and told her it was Adderall. Instead, it was a drug that caused Roberts to black out.
Roberts said a similar incident happened at another recruiting event in March 2020 at a hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida. She was given the party drug GHB and blacked out.
She said that she doesn’t remember the majority of what happened at either event after she blacked out, but through the testimony of others at the event, flashes of memory that came back to her, and contextual clues, Roberts concluded she was raped by Golden and Bjorkman — and possibly others — at both events.
Following the incidents, Roberts made it clear to Golden and Bjorkman that she would not join their team, and she claims that Golden began a smear campaign against Roberts within eXp. Roberts was so distraught that she moved to Costa Rica. Years later, Roberts learned that other women have claimed they were drugged and assaulted by the two agents
Two other suits were filed, one in February 2023 by Fabiola Acevedo, Tami Sims, Christy Lundy, and an anonymous husband and wife. The complaint alleges that the four women were drugged and assaulted, and did not remember anything when they woke up in their hotel rooms.
The other suit, filed by Misty Carter, was dismissed in June.
In May, Bjorkman filed a suit against Sanford for allegedly defaming him in an earnings call in November 2023 by referring to him and Golden as “two bad actors.”
Golden has since been suspended by eXp and Bjorkman is no longer at the company. Sanford stepped down as eXp Realty’s CEO in April but remains as the chairman and CEO of parent company eXp World Holdings. Leo Pareja is the new CEO of eXp Realty.
