Judge denies eXp bid to dismiss fraud claims in sexual misconduct case. by jonathan delozier april 09, 2026 09:56 AM. A federal judge has denied eXp Realty's request to dismiss a fraud claim brought by four women who say the company lied about investigating their allegations of sexual assault by two former agents. U.S. District Court Judge André Birotte Jr. ruled this week that the fraudulent misrepresentation claim could move forward - including allegations that eXp Realty and its parent company eXp World Holdings made false statements to keep plaintiffs from leaving the firm. The lawsuit - originally filed in February 2023 - centers on claims that suspended eXp agent David Golden and now-former agent Michael Bjorkman violated federal sex trafficking laws. The women say the men drugged and sexually assaulted them at company events. A third agent, Brent Gove, has also been named as having allegedly participated in or ignored the offenses. During the three-year span of the lawsuit, eXp and its founder Glenn Sanford faced allegations of negligent hiring. But these claims against Sanford and the company were ultimately dismissed. Plaintiffs claim they reported assaults to company leadership - including the general counsel and the director of agent compliance. But behind the scenes, the women say executives had already chosen not to investigate. Their claims cite evidence uncovered during discovery, including communications between Bjorkman and Cory Haggard, eXp's senior vice president of agent compliance, stating that "no investigation would be occurring." Judge rejects company's arguments. In its motion to dismiss, eXp argued the women failed to meet the legal standard for fraud. The company noted that it took written statements from the plaintiffs, spoke with legal counsel, offered to speak to witnesses and held meetings with its agent compliance committee. eXp has also argued the plaintiffs "made no allegation" that any of the executives deposed were speaking on behalf of the company when they made their statements. The company has since separated itself from both Bjorkman and Golden and claims it acted "as soon as the accusers brought (incidents) to our attention." But Birotte was not persuaded. He found that the women had sufficiently alleged "misrepresentations by members of eXp Defendants' leadership teams," including specific false statements about an ongoing investigation and the company's severed ties with Bjorkman. "Plaintiffs alleged they originally reported the sexual assaults because of the Policies and Procedures but the misrepresentations did not start there," Birotte wrote. "Rather, each alleged several separate misrepresentations by members of the eXp leadership team throughout the course of the purported investigation." Case moves forward. The judge also rejected eXp's argument that the fraud claim was barred by the economic loss rule, which prevents plaintiffs from repackaging a breach of contract as a tort claim. "As the alleged tort is not based in a violation of a breach of contract the economic loss rule does not apply," Birotte wrote. The court granted eXp's request to extend fact discovery by 60 days and ordered both sides to submit a new proposed schedule within 14 days. 26 Apr, 09

Inside a 90-day meeting makeover. Embracing people-first design helped 2026 Visionary Awards finalist Mindy Grubb reimagine eXp Realty's 5,000-person flagship annual event in just three months. In partnership with Freeman, eXp completely reimagined their Expo Hall to be more central to the attendee journey. The Business Event Strategist of the Year category at the Visionary Awards recognizes professionals who lead business events with clear strategic intent, aligning vision, execution, and measurable outcomes to simultaneously further organizational goals and elevate the attendee experience. 2026 finalist Mindy Grubb, CMP, vice president of events at eXp Realty, manages the company's $12-million global events portfolio. Last year, she redesigned the attendee journey for her organization's annual meeting just 90 days ahead of the event. eXpcon Miami 2025 took place Oct. 19-23 at the Miami Beach Convention Center for agents, brokers, and staff, and ushered in a shift to "people-first design" for eXp events. "eXpcon Miami followed immediately after eXpcon Canada and eXpcon International, so as a team we moved straight into our 5,000-person flagship event with roughly 90 days to make a meaningful impact," Grubb told Convene. A dip in Net Promoter Score was a signal to the planning team that the event experience wasn't translating into loyalty or advocacy, so they set to work reinventing eXpcon Miami. "The first thing we focused on was the friction points. Where were we losing energy? Where were we creating congestion? Why were sponsors feeling like add-ons instead of partners? The compressed timeline forced clarity. Every change had to matter," she said. Grubb and her team worked with Freeman to make bold changes in the months leading up to the meeting, embracing people-first design principles as they considered various tweaks to the event's physical layout and educational programming. "In partnership with Freeman, we studied traffic flow and rebuilt the floor intentionally," Grubb said. "But layout alone wasn't enough. People-first design means walking the event like an attendee. We mapped the full journey: registration, entry points, breakout transitions, expo traffic. We looked for congestion, confusion, and energy drop-offs." One of the most effective changes at eXpcon 2025 was making Expo Hall take a more central role over the five days of the event. "We programmed energy into the space with games, food activations, and built-in networking moments," she said. "The pickleball court was constantly buzzing. The Expo Hall stopped being a pass-through and became a destination." Embracing a people-first design approach also inspired a range of minor tweaks, Grubb said, but those "few strategic adjustments made a real difference: removing hallway sponsor tables that created bottlenecks and consolidating breakout sessions into strategic clusters instead of spreading them across the entire convention center." She and her team also rebooted the education program, focusing most of their efforts on the general session, which had previously "leaned heavily on traditional panel discussions. There's a place for that, but it wasn't creating momentum," Grubb said. "We elevated the general session into a true production. We brought in keynote voices like [entrepreneur, author, and rapper] Jesse Itzler and [restaurateur] Will Guidara and layered in music, entertainment, and intentional transitions that kept the room engaged from start to finish. Run-of-show was tightened. Narrative flow mattered. We treated the stage like an experience, not just a sequence of sessions." In the wake of these changes, eXpcon's revenue stayed steady - but stakeholder sentiment improved dramatically. "Sponsors shared this was one of the best experiences they had at any event all year and most secured 2026 commitments before leaving," Grubb said. "The biggest shift wasn't physical. It was philosophical. Sponsors are partners in the experience, not transactional placements." The impact of the changes were immediately observable in the post-event survey data: eXpcon's NPS jumped from -45 in 2024 to 83 for the 2025 show. Kate Mulcrone is Convene's digital managing editor March 26, 2026

eXp launches premarket partnership with three portals. The news follows a similar announcement involving Zillow and other big brokerages yesterday, but notably is "non-exclusive." Reading Time: 2 mins read The mad dash for premarket power is showing no signs of slowing, as mega-brokerage eXp announced that it is striking a listing partnership with Realtor.com(R), Homes.com and ComeHome.com (HouseCanary's portal in Google Search), just 24 hours after Zillow launched a similar partnership with five other big national companies. Start Your 30-day free Premier trial today - exclusive insights, no credit card needed! Enter your email to access RISMedia Daily News. Jesse Williams is content director for RISMedia Premier.