Former CFO Sues Real Brokerage For Pregnancy Discrimination

A former executive with the Real Brokerage is suing the company over pregnancy discrimination.

In a lawsuit filed in New York on Tuesday, Michelle Ressler, previously the firm’s chief financial officer, accused the brokerage of reducing the scope of her job after she’d had a baby and firing her for pushing back against the alleged discrimination.

The complaint alleges brokerage executives wrongly cited “gross misconduct,” including charging personal expenses to the company credit card, as the reason for her termination. She claims the firm defamed her when it published a press release accusing her of violating company policy.

Allison Van Kampen, an attorney for Ressler, in a statement described Ressler’s allegations as “textbook claims for gender discrimination, pregnancy discrimination and retaliation.”

“Defendants decided to get rid of her because she started a family and dared to challenge the Company’s questionable and potentially unlawful conduct,” the complaint states. A spokesperson for the Real Brokerage declined to comment, citing its policy not to provide statements related to pending litigation.

The firm terminated Ressler’s employment in April, roughly three months after she returned from maternity leave. To take her place, the brokerage tapped Ravi Jani, the former vice president of investor relations and financial planning, who’s described in the complaint as her “less qualified male subordinate.”

Ressler says in the complaint that she informed executives at the company, including CEO Tamir Poleg, of her pregnancy last January and her intention to start her maternity leave in August. She alleges that after she told Poleg about her pregnancy, he repeatedly made comments alluding to her role changing once she had the baby.

“We’ll see how you feel after you have the baby, you might find that your priorities change,” Poleg allegedly told Ressler in February 2024. About five months later, Poleg allegedly told Ressler, “Don’t underestimate how hard this is going to be once you’ve had the baby.”

The lawsuit claims that after Ressler announced her pregnancy, the firm began reassigning some of her duties, which continued up until and following her maternity leave. Ressler alleges that when she returned from leave, the firm “continued marginalizing her, excluding her from key decisions, systematically undermining her authority, and scapegoating her for leadership failures beyond her control.”

The complaint states Ressler was fired in April after an internal audit revealed that between March and July 2024, she’d made more than $17,000 worth of unauthorized purchases using her company card, which she claims were expenses related to the networking required by her role.

She alleges that Poleg threatened to report her for stealing company funds. The complaint also accuses Poleg of using his company card to pay for a family vacation without disciplinary action.

“That Ms. Ressler, a CFO, would intentionally misuse company funds for personal expenses worth around $17,400, less than 1 percent of her annual, seven-figure compensation, defies common sense,” the complaint states. “Defendants failed to discipline, let alone fire, male executives who engaged in similar or worse behavior.”