Howard Lorber, the former chairman and CEO of Douglas Elliman, admitted during an internal inquiry to having intimate relationships with two of the company’s brokers.
The discovery came during a video conference call on Oct. 8 — two weeks before Lorber stepped down from leading the company — a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
The Wall Street Journal reported days after Lorber’s departure that the board had urged him to retire after an investigation sparked by concerns over the company’s culture and its financial troubles.
Elliman previously said Lorber’s exit was not a result of any violation or conflict with the company.
An initial probe led by attorney Marc Kasowitz, the firm’s external lawyer and a longtime friend of Lorber’s, was later deemed inadequate. The investigation was ultimately handled by Robert Anello of the law firm Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello in the weeks leading up to Lorber’s exit, TRD previously reported.
“Our firm was preparing to defend the company against potential claims,” Kasowitz told the Journal in a statement. “Any suggestion that in doing so we would be less aggressive or effective in finding out the true facts because of our longtime business and personal relationship with Mr. Lorber makes no sense and is the exact opposite of the truth.”
The company came under the spotlight this summer after lawsuits surfaced from women alleging sexual assault and rape by two of its former top producers, Oren and Tal Alexander. Additional allegations reported by the Journal and the New York Times against the brothers, who left the company in 2022, included at least two people saying they had notified Elliman leadership of alleged incidents.
Lawyers questioned Lorber about his personal life and allegations of sexual harassment at the firm. During the call, Lorber said he had had relationships with brokers Jennine Gourin and Jessica Cohen, Bloomberg reported.
Cohen was the same broker at the center of accusations against Oren and Tal Alexander, providing one of the first accounts to tie Lorber directly to the scandal.
Cohen told the New York Times that she told Lorber in 2012, when the two were playing chess together, that she believed she had been drugged by Tal and Oren. A spokesperson for Elliman confirmed that Lorber had heard of an incident but maintained that it was confidential and not an official human resources complaint.
Douglass Maynard, a lawyer for Lorber, in a statement to TRD after Bloomberg’s report flatly denied any knowledge of an allegation.
“Mr. Lorber was not aware of any allegations of sexual assault against the Alexanders before June 2024, when It was widely reported in the media,” the attorney said.
Maynard did not confirm or deny the details of the videoconference to Bloomberg, but said the idea that the special committee pushed Lorber out for acting inappropriately would be “false and contrary to what the company disclosed” publicly.
The attorney told Bloomberg that the company did not have a policy against consensual relationships between employees and independent brokers.
A lawyer for Cohen described her as a “victim,” and said that the idea that any romantic relationship or relationship of any kind between Cohen and Lorber contributed to her success at the firm was “categorically false.”
“Cohen was a top broker long before she met Mr. Lorber, and the treatment that she suffered at his hands and that of Douglas Elliman have had a profoundly negative impact on her life and career,” her lawyer said in an email.
Gourin declined to comment to the outlet.
Gourin, a longtime Elliman broker, pulled in half a million dollars in 2013 and 2014, according to data provided to Bloomberg, earning her a spot in the “chairman’s circle” as one of the firm’s top brokers.
This article has been updated to include statements from attorneys Marc Kasowitz and Douglass Maynard.