Jason Oppenheim, Altmans Pulled into Legal Spats

Escrow violations and kickback allegations have reared their heads once again to drag some of L.A.’s most well-known reality TV stars and Douglas Elliman into two dueling lawsuits filed this week in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The legal mudslinging alleges Elliman’s Altman Brothers Team inflated commissions in closing paperwork, while the brokerage’s escrow subsidiary Portfolio Escrow accused its own former managing director, Maria Trangelo-Molina, of a kickback scheme with Oppenheim Group’s Jason Oppenheim.

Portfolio is the escrow subsidiary of Douglas Elliman, which the brokerage acquired in 2020.

None of the reality TV stars or their respective businesses are named as defendants in either complaint.

Trangelo-Molina fired the first shot on Monday with her lawsuit against Elliman’s California subsidiaries, escrow officer Melinda Topete, Elliman COO William Begert, Elliman legal counsel Ari Markow and David Werth, Elliman’s director of business development.

A spokesperson for Elliman declined to comment on behalf of the brokerage, Portfolio Escrow or any of the company employees named in the lawsuit. Oppenheim, reached Friday, said he had not seen the lawsuit and declined to comment. The Altman Brothers Team did not respond to a request for comment.

Trangelo-Molina, whose attorney did not return requests seeking comment, is suing for harassment, discrimination and wrongful termination among other allegations. The former executive claims as she sought to ensure Portfolio remained in compliance with the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation and the U.S. Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, she was elbowed out of key management decisions, became the victim of a “boys’ club” and then was ultimately terminated, according to the complaint.

She accuses her former firm and its parent of violating DFPI’s working agreement terms for Elliman’s purchase of Portfolio, alleging the brokerage “took over all operations” of the escrow company. Portfolio, under terms of the DFPI agreement, was expected to remain an independent business post-acquisition. There were also concerns she said she raised about an alleged request for more than $250,000 in vacation time from Portfolio Escrow’s founder and former president, William Grasska.

Instead of the company addressing her concerns, Trangelo-Molina alleges she was pushed out of meetings and forced by former Elliman western region CEO Stephen Kotler to bring the Altman Brothers Team back as clients of Portfolio.

A spokesperson for Kotler, who is no longer with the brokerage, did not respond to a request for comment.

Trangelo-Molina alleges in her suit she had already “dropped” the Altmans as a client “due to their illegal and unethical escrow practices.” That would include instructing their assistant, Autumn Bender, to not adjust their commissions even if the property price was reduced in escrow.

“If sellers noticed the unadjusted commissions, Bender was directed to take the blame personally,” Trangelo-Molina alleges in her complaint.

She says in her lawsuit she reported her concerns to DFPI auditor Edgar Nunez last April and that an audit of the escrow business is underway. It’s unclear if she filed complaints with any other regulatory agencies.

“DFPI cannot comment on active litigations related to licensee examinations,” Daniel Emmons, a spokesperson for the agency, told The Real Deal in an email Thursday in response to the complaint, while adding DFPI does not have oversight over RESPA violations, which is federal law.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is charged with enforcement of RESPA, but is not mentioned in Trangelo-Molina’s complaint.

“Schemes”

Portfolio Escrow hit back on Friday and countersued Trangelo-Molina for fraud, breach of contract, embezzlement and other claims.

“Maria Trangelo has claimed to be a law-abiding escrow industry leader who was wrongfully terminated, but in reality, she has spent the last decade routinely stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Portfolio,” the company says in its lawsuit.

Trangelo-Molina “masterminded and engaged in schemes” with other employees, a revelation that came about last May, according to the lawsuit.

Portfolio Escrow also accused Janet Erbse and Kari Yocam, in addition to an unnamed employee, as “co-conspirators” in starting a competing business to their then-employer.

Yocam, appears to now be with Ravello Escrow, while the Escrow Institute of California lists Erbse as also being at the same firm, though she does not appear on the company’s website. A message left with a Ravello receptionist requesting comment from Yocam and Erbse was not immediately returned Friday.

Portfolio’s lawsuit also alleges more than $14,000 in unauthorized charges on a company credit card, which Portfolio said Trangelo-Molina acknowledged and agreed to pay back. Alleged payroll advances that were not fully paid back and “bogus commission calculation practices” that directly benefited Trangelo-Molina also make up the complaint.

All in, Portfolio Escrow claims Trangelo-Molina embezzled more than $220,000 from the company between January 2021 up until her termination.

Portfolio claims Trangelo-Molina was fired on account of what was uncovered in the audit, in contrast to her claim of wrongful termination, according to the countersuit.

Wrapped up in the complaint is an alleged kickback scheme involving Trangelo-Molina, Yocam, an unidentified employee and the Oppenheim Group’s Jason Oppenheim.

The suit alleges the “Selling Sunset” star received over $100,000 from the arrangement, which included as much as a 20 percent cut of the escrow fees on transactions that were referred to Trangelo-Molina.

Oppenheim, reached Friday, said he had not seen the lawsuit and declined comment.

The alleged kickbacks extended well beyond Oppenheim, Portfolio’s lawsuit says, and included other local realtors who received gifts such as coffee cart services at their open houses if they agreed to send their escrow business to Trangelo-Molina. These would be considered a gift or “things of value,” which are prohibited by RESPA.

The coffee service was allegedly reimbursed and shielded through invoices used by the spouse of one of the alleged “co-conspirators,” though the lawsuit doesn’t identify that individual.

Competing lawsuits

The complaints, in some ways, mirror the in-fighting that occurred with Portfolio founder Grasska, who is not named as a defendant in the Trangelo-Molina lawsuit.

Grasska was involved in litigation concerning his former firm in October, when he sued for retaliation, defamation and breach of contract among other accusations. His lawsuit, like Trangelo-Molina’s, accuses the Altman Brothers Team of inflating their closing statements and, similarly, did not name the team or any individuals in it as defendants.

Elliman and Portfolio Escrow fired back at Grasska with a suit of their own later that same month accusing him of breach of contract, embezzlement and misappropriation of trade secrets among other things. Within that lawsuit was the same allegation involving Oppenheim, which pulled Grasska into the alleged arrangement with a then-unnamed reality TV star later reported by Inman to be Oppenheim.

He refuted any wrongdoing to TRD at the time of that report.

“Just calling it a scheme, it’s so ridiculous. It was a legitimate structure accountants and attorneys reviewed,” Oppenheim told TRD last year and also disputed the total amounting to the $100,000 cited in the Grasska lawsuit.

Both cases were settled in December with Grasska telling TRD in a statement “any differences between Douglas Elliman, Portfolio Escrow and I have been resolved.”