Shortly after shareholders sued one of the nation’s largest real estate brokerages, accusing its leaders of ignoring numerous claims of sexual assault, the brokerage announced it was moving its place of incorporation from Delaware to Texas — a state known for being friendly to companies facing such complaints.
But on Wednesday, New York State’s comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, called on shareholders to block that move, saying that investors had a duty to hold the billion-dollar firm accountable and push for company reform.
In three separate lawsuits — two filed in 2023 in California and one filed in 2025 in Florida — several women have accused the brokerage, eXp Realty, a flashy, cloud-based firm, of enabling drugging and rapes at conferences and company recruiting events.
Most of the allegations, detailed in a 2023 New York Times investigation, focus on two former star agents who brought in millions for the brokerage and were allowed to stay on at eXp long after the company was made aware of complaints about their behavior. Both men were among the highest earners at the brokerage, where agents earn a cut of the profits of each new worker they bring in.
Separately, two shareholder pension funds have filed a separate suit in Delaware, where eXp’s parent company is incorporated, citing the allegations and accusing the company of endangering their investments through a “purposeful decision to ignore reports of criminal abuse.”
After a judge allowed the suit to move forward, its founder and chief executive, Glenn Sanford, announced that the company was planning a move to Texas. (Elon Musk famously moved Tesla from Delaware to Texas in 2024 after a Delaware judge voided his $56 billion compensation package; the crypto platform Coinbase made the same leap in 2025.)
eXp has been publicly traded since 2013. According to its most recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York State Common Retirement Fund held nearly 27,000 shares of eXp Realty’s parent company.
Any move would have to be approved by a majority of shareholders, and Mr. DiNapoli, who is trustee of the New York pension fund, said he was urging all investors to vote against it on April 24 at the company’s annual meeting, and to also vote against its board of directors. eXp has more than 300 investors holding nearly 160 million shares in total.
“There has been an avoidance of corporate responsibility at the highest levels,” Mr. DiNapoli said in an interview. “They have not taken these allegations seriously, and they’re just packing up their tents and moving somewhere else hoping there will be less scrutiny and less accountability.”
In the lawsuits, five former agents at eXp Realty said that the two prominent agents at the brokerage drugged them at separate recruiting events. Four of the five said they were sexually assaulted after the drugging. A sixth agent, who is also suing the brokerage, said that she was drugged and raped by another man, a photographer contracted by eXp, at a company conference in Florida.
In January 2024, shortly after The Times published its investigation, Mr. DiNapoli issued a call for an independent investigation into the culture at eXp. The brokerage later wrote Mr. DiNapoli to assure him that they were conducting “an independent review of the facts and allegations,” but Mr. DiNapoli said they failed to reveal what, if anything, the review found.
In an email, Noor Marzook, eXp’s vice president of communications, said that the company’s decision to reincorporate in Texas had been in the works for more than a year, and stemmed from “considered judgment about the long-term operational and governance interests of the company and its shareholders” rather than legal challenges.
“eXp takes all allegations of misconduct seriously,” she said, and added that the men accused of assault are no longer affiliated with the company. She said eXp had engaged outside counsel to conduct an investigation, which “did not substantiate the claims that company leadership was aware of and failed to act on allegations of assault.” Ms. Marzook said she could not disclose the investigation’s findings because of the pending litigation.
“We reject in the strongest terms the characterization of eXp as having any culture that tolerates harm to any individuals,” she said.
The pension fund shareholders who took legal action against the brokerage — the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System and Building Trades Pension Fund of Western Pennsylvania — filed their lawsuit against in October 2024, accusing the company’s leaders of breaching their fiduciary duties by ignoring red flags of sexual misconduct by agents.
The two former agents accused in the lawsuit of drugging and assault, Michael Bjorkman and David Golden, were among eXp’s most successful recruiters and highest earners. Mr. Bjorkman did face criminal charges in 2021, but that case was later dismissed. They both deny all allegations and left eXp.
Mr. DiNapoli said New York preferred to stay on as a shareholder of eXp, where it could put pressure on leaders to change their culture, rather than divest. He has put similar pressure on other companies in which New York is a shareholder and where accusations of workplace abuse have surfaced, including Tesla, Starbucks and Wells Fargo.
In 2018, Mr. DiNapoli led a lawsuit against the casino magnate Steve Wynn and the officers and directors of Wynn Resorts following reports of abuse and sexual misconduct. That suit was settled for $90 million in 2019.
Debra Kamin is an investigative reporter for The Times who covers wealth and power in New York.
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