LoanDepot stiffed its own LOs on commissions, rival claims

CrossCountry Mortgage alleges loanDepot "routinely and falsely" shortchanged its own originators' commissions, its latest scathing counterclaim in a poaching and theft of trade secrets lawsuit. 

LoanDepot sued CCM last July in a New York federal court for purportedly poaching at least 32 of its employees beginning last February. The Cleveland-based lender has denied allegations of wrongdoing and, along with its current employees who are named defendants, included the commission claims in responses filed in late December and earlier this week.

"LoanDepot routinely – and falsely – designated bona fide self-generated loans as company-generated loans in order to pay a lower commission to the originating individual defendant," wrote counsel for CrossCountry in a lengthy response this week. "That constituted a material contract breach, as loanDepot's loan officers were entitled to a higher commission for self-generated loans than for company-generated loans."

Another former loanDepot worker turned CCM originator claims his ex-employer pushed a loan's closing date outside of a 30-day post-resignation earnings window in order to deprive him of the compensation. The allegations did not specify the amount of compensation employees were deprived of.

Representatives for both CrossCountry and loanDepot this week declined to comment on the lawsuit. Attorneys for both parties didn't respond to messages seeking comment.

The complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York also accuses CrossCountry of theft of trade secrets in collecting loanDepot internal financial information and customer contact lists through departed employees. The named defendants accounted for $846 million of annual loan volume, or approximately 81% of loanDepot's New York production, the lender said. 

The accusations are similar to loanDepot's separate action against CCM in Illinois, where a federal judge in December recently barred CrossCountry from using the thousands of loanDepot documents it gathered from transferring employees. 

CrossCountry has reiterated in court filings its claim that loanDepot is filing the suits in retaliation for spurning an alleged merger offer in 2021 following loanDepot's initial public offering. The two lenders sit among the industry's biggest players; loanDepot last year originated $48 billion through Oct. 31, while CCM counted more than $31 billion in volume in the same period, according to S&P Global data. 

The Ohio-based lender has accused loanDepot itself of poaching CCM workers and misappropriation of trade secrets in Chicago and Pennsylvania, and using the names and likeness of former loanDepot and current CCM originators to attract business. Counsel for CCM has also argued loanDepot doesn't treat basic customer contact information as a trade secret, a claim rejected by a judge in the Illinois case. 

As of Friday, the companies were sparring over loanDepot's proposed preliminary injunction against CCM, and a federal judge has set a March 10 deadline for filing responses. 

The court battles have come at steep costs for lenders, as CrossCountry alleges at least hundreds of thousands of dollars spent in the New York loanDepot case. Guild Mortgage claims it spent over $2 million in attorney's fees litigating a poaching complaint against CCM in a since-dismissed federal case. 

Beyond poaching suits, CrossCountry also faces a new accusation from a former employee, Paul Lundholm, that the firm failed to pay its workers as mortgage activity slowed last year. CCM, in a bid to seek Lundholm's sign-on bonus, sued him for over $81,000 in an Ohio court earlier this month and this week raised the suit to the Northern District of Ohio federal court.