What began as a legal battle between two companies that previously worked together on a Keller Williams technology platform has recently expanded to include industry veteran Josh Team.
A lawsuit that was originally filed in early February in the Tarrant County District Court of Texas accuses the former KW president of receiving millions of dollars in illegal “kickbacks” while serving as the franchisor’s chief innovation offer. Team’s lawyers have denied these allegations in court filings. Team did not immediately respond to a request for comment from HousingWire.
Team left Keller Williams in 2021 after serving as its president for roughly two years. In January 2024, he was named president of SERHANT.
Prior to Team’s involvement in the case, the suit was between Aika and East Media Consulting (EMC). In September, Aika filed a counterclaim that brought Team into the suit.
According to the counterclaim, in 2015 while working for Keller Williams, Team was asked to build a platform for the firm. In order to do this, Team formed EMC, and a former colleague formed Aika, which subsequently obtained a contract to build the software for KW. But according to the counterclaim, Aika funneled some of the money it received as part of the contract back to Team through EMC.
Over the course of eight years from 2015 to 2023, Keller Williams paid Aika more than $38 million, according to the counterclaim. Of that sum, Aika claims that more than $10 million ended up back in Team’s pocket as part of a “kickback.”
Aika’s filing claims that the firm was a legitimate company but that Team “added zero value to this product,” alleging that his sole role was to “protect” the company’s contract with Keller Williams. Through the counterclaim, Aika is asking the court to rule that the profit-sharing agreement between Aika and EMC was illegal, meaning that Aika would not be forced to pay EMC.
In a motion to dismiss Aika’s request, Team’s lawyers said that Aika’s claims are “false” and that its version of the story is supposed to “create leverage.” The motion also claims that Aika’s filing was “a gross abuse of the court system” that is meant “to bully a non-party into causing East Media to release meritorious claims against Aika.”
Team’s motion also points out that in discovery, Aika denied that it had paid any illegal kickbacks, which goes against what the firm alleges in its counterclaim.
