With a high-stakes trial scheduled for next year, eXp is now also facing two more lawsuits by women who are claiming the company retaliated against them for reporting drug use, sexual assault and other misconduct at company events, offering further details of what previous accusers have described as a culture of abuse, sexual harassment and drug use among top recruiters.
Noelle Nielsen, a former top influencer who is now with the Real Brokerage, sued eXp in Minnesota state court in June for breach of contract, harassment and retaliation, specifically claiming that eXp executives threatened to fire her if she cooperated in other lawsuits against the company.
Ashley Golladay, a former corporate employee, sued in Washington State Court also in June, claiming she was fired after reporting her direct supervisor, Dave Conord, who was also named in other lawsuits.
Both lawsuits add new details to the list of accusations against the company, which were made public in 2023 after a group of women filed a lawsuit in California, months after Michael Bjorkman, one of two agents at the center of most of the misconduct, was arrested for dozens of incidents going back years (though Bjorkman was never charged). Bjorkman is no longer at the company.
Yesterday, eXp responded in court to Nielsen’s lawsuit, arguing that her claims are barred by the statute of limitations, that as an independent contractor she is not subject to whistleblower or wage-theft protections. The company also alleged that her initial reports of misconduct were actually “barely-veiled threat(s)” against eXp as she sought to change her sponsorship.
“Nielsen’s (reports of misconduct) were not protected reports for purposes of her (state anti-discrimination law) reprisal claim,” eXp’s lawyers wrote. “(H)er purpose in sending these communications was to request a sponsorship change—not to oppose alleged conduct made unlawful by the (anti-discrimination law).”
eXp, in an emailed statement, said the company takes the allegations in the lawsuits “seriously” and has “robust policies in place to address misconduct and retaliation.”
“However, the claims are entirely without merit and we intend to defend the case vigorously. eXp is committed to maintaining a workplace and community that is inclusive, respectful, and aligned with our core values,” the spokesperson said.
The details
Nielsen’s memo to eXp leadership from 2020 was filed in full by eXp’s lawyers in their response, seemingly made public for the first time—though it has been referenced extensively in other lawsuits against the company.
Nielsen, who was recruited to eXp by Bjorkman and his partner, David Golden (who has since been suspended), and alleges she was drugged by the men at least once, wrote to then-CEO Jason Gesing, VP of Agent Compliance Cory Haggard and Conord that she witnessed rampant drug use and sexual harassment by the men (and other eXp agents or influencers).
In that memo, dated October 6, 2020, well before eXp acknowledged the issues (and years before the men were separated from the company), Nielsen lists what she calls “fire-worthy” offenses, also naming former eXp agent Rick Geha, who died in 2023, and current top influencer Rosie Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, who was in Golden’s “upline” at the time and appears to still be affiliated with eXp, did not respond to a request for comment.
“It is my belief that this type of behavior is not an isolated event, but is in fact, by far the opposite…I believe I am the lucky one who didn’t get raped,” Nielsen wrote.
In the 12-page letter, Nielsen describes the “mass chaos” of dozens of other incidents mostly centering on Golden and Bjorkman, including detailed timelines and third-party witnesses, describing everything from a bar fight involving a drunken Golden and a prospective recruit, to overdoses where Rodriguez “discouraged” bystanders from calling medical services, to “paid friends” of Golden attending eXp events to convince alleged victims that what they experienced was not rape.
Separately, Golladay’s lawsuit alleges that at roughly this same time, Conord was sending sexually charged messages to women who worked beneath him, and had a sexual relationship with another subordinate, which Golladay reported to Gesing.
Conord retired in 2021, but then returned to the company less than a year later. After his return, Golladay was transferred to a new department, and then fired, she claims—allegedly in retaliation for her reports.
In her lawsuit this year, Nielsen claims that eXp never followed up with her or any of the 80 agents she worked with who “had exposure” to Bjorkman and Golden, despite promising a comprehensive investigation.
Systemic issues alleged
In Nielsen’s lawsuit, eXp filed a handful of pages from Nielsen’s 2024 deposition in one of the other lawsuits, in which she admitted that Gesing called her “apologizing for the circumstances” after the 2020 memo, and promising that eXp “was going to take it very seriously.”
But Nielsen claims the company failed to offer any substantive response, and left other agents in the dark as far as the allegations or any investigation (though it did grant her a sponsorship change, after her lawyers spoke to eXp’s lawyers). She added that the company didn’t grant her speaking opportunities and failed to invite her to networking events.
“(Nielsen) felt ‘handcuffed,’ because her income largely depended on her speaking highly of eXp,” the lawsuit read.
Around three years later, Nielsen says she encountered Brent Gove, a top eXp influencer who is a defendant in this and other lawsuits, who tearfully disclosed to her in a hotel basement meeting room that “another agent” who was implicated in her 2020 report convinced him to blacklist her, adding that his lawyers wouldn’t want him to tell her about this.
“Gove was sweating profusely, crying toward the end of the meeting and apologized to Nielsen for what he had done. It seemed to be a very genuine apology,” Nielsen wrote, claiming that Gove then invited her to speak at one of his events (she declined).
An unnamed “eXp vice president” allegedly later admitted that Nielsen “was not allowed” to speak on stage, Nielsen claimed. According to plaintiffs in one of the other lawsuits, Gove—whose “downline” of recruits make up a massive share of the company, threatened Glenn Sanford, eXp CEO at the time, that he would leave the company with all his agents if Golden and Bjorkman were fired. They also allege that Gove interfered with a criminal investigation into Bjorkman, soliciting false statements from witnesses.
Nielsen also claims that after initially discouraging her from cooperating with the other lawsuits and promising to protect her legally, eXp changed tacts and chose to depose her, threatening to bring a contempt motion if she didn’t cooperate.
She also briefly touched on a central contention of the other lawsuit—that eXp’s recruiting structure encourages this kind of behavior and disincentivizes accountability, as “upline” and “downline” agents have interwoven financial interests with each other, and with company leadership.
According to Nielsen, she discussed these issues with “executives” at the company, asking if it was “inherently problematic” to expect agents to report people for misconduct when they depend on that person financially.
In her October 2020 letter, Nielsen wrote that “eXp has the potential to be amazing,” but added she felt it was “important” that she “vocally share the risks of the eXp model in its current form to hopefully prevent others from falling victim as many of my friends have.” She also threatened to leave the company, and added that “my reasons for leaving will not go unnoticed.”
“(A)s long as agent-leadership is in a position to abuse their power, with no remedy for those underneath them, (eXp) will never be able to excel to a position of respectability within the real estate world,” she wrote.
