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Former chairman, president and CEO of Douglas Elliman Inc. Howard Lorber reportedly disclosed he had had intimate relationships with two of the agency’s feminine brokers throughout his tenure as the corporate’s chief, throughout an interview by a particular committee of the board prematurely of his retirement about two weeks in the past.
Lorber’s retirement announcement was made on Oct. 22, at which level the agency additionally introduced that board director Michael Liebowitz can be appointed as the brand new chairman and CEO.
Nonetheless, a couple of days later, The Wall Avenue Journal reported that Lorber had been pressured to resign, because the agency’s monetary losses had mounted during the last two years, and issues grew about firm tradition, notably after information broke that two long-time prime brokers, Tal and Oren Alexander, had been going through a number of lawsuits for sexual assault. Some allegations in opposition to them got here from brokers inside Douglas Elliman.
Throughout a five-hour-long inner inquiry through videoconference on Oct. 8, Lorber was questioned by legal professionals employed by a particular committee of the board of administrators about his private life and allegations of sexual harassment on the brokerage, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Beforehand, the board decided that an inner evaluation that had been performed by Douglas Elliman lawyer Marc Kasowitz, who can be Lorber’s lawyer and pal, was not adequately neutral.
Jennine Gourin | Douglas Elliman
Following the Oct. 8 interview, the particular committee decided that Lorber behaved inappropriately, in response to a Bloomberg supply acquainted with the matter. Throughout that interview, the supply mentioned that Lorber disclosed he had engaged in intimate relationships with Jennine Gourin and Jessica Cohen whereas their licenses had been lively at Douglas Elliman. Each girls are nonetheless affiliated with the agency.
Attorneys for Lorber didn’t instantly reply to Inman’s request for remark.
In its assertion saying Lorber’s retirement, Douglas Elliman thanked him for his “strategic vision and years of dedication and hard work.” A submitting with the SEC mentioned that his departure “was not due to any disagreement with the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices.”
In line with Douglass Maynard, one other lawyer representing Lorber, Elliman doesn’t have an organization coverage in opposition to consensual relationships between staff and unbiased brokers.
Douglas Elliman declined to touch upon the revelation of Lorber’s relationships with Gourin and Cohen to Inman.
Gourin attended the Hampton Basic Horse present with Lorber in 2013, The New York Submit reported, and the Southampton Hospital profit in 2014, The Wall Avenue Journal reported, in addition to different occasions. Throughout these two years, Gourin closed greater than half one million in commissions, in response to information Maynard offered to Bloomberg, which elevated her to the top-earning chairman’s circle.
Jessica Cohen | Douglas Elliman
“When asked, Mr. Lorber on occasion recommended Ms. Gourin, as he has done with hundreds of other agents, both male and female,” Maynard advised Bloomberg, when requested if Lorber had ever referred Gourin for listings.
Gourin didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The opposite dealer Lorber named as somebody he had been in a relationship with was Jessica Cohen, whose title surfaced earlier this yr in relation to sexual assault and rape claims made in opposition to long-time Elliman brokers and Official cofounders Tal and Oren Alexander.
Cohen advised The New York Occasions earlier this yr that she had had a drink with the Alexander brothers at a celebration in Manhattan in 2010, and hours later awakened in Mount Sinai West Hospital, unable to recall particulars of what had occurred to her. A medical report from that evening reveals {that a} bystander had discovered her alone on the street and known as 911.
Two years after the incident occurred and after Cohen had tried to piece collectively what occurred that evening with different Douglas Elliman colleagues, Cohen advised Lorber in confidence over a sport of chess that she believed she had been drugged by Tal and Oren Alexander. Cohen requested Lorber to maintain the incident a secret out of worry of retaliation by the Alexanders, and subsequently, no formal HR grievance was ever issued, Elliman representatives mentioned.
“Over at least a decade ago, a broker told a senior executive about having blacked out at a social event,” Douglas Elliman reps mentioned in an announcement issued in July. “She said that she did not know what, if anything, happened, she did not specify who may have been involved, and she insisted on absolute confidentiality. Douglas Elliman respected her wishes, and she has been a valued colleague at the company since then.”
Michael Willemin, an legal professional representing Cohen, mentioned the concept Cohen had a romantic relationship with Lorber, or that any alleged relationship made it simpler for her to change into a prime agent, was “categorically false.”
“Cohen was a top broker long before she met Mr. Lober, 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,” Willemin mentioned in an announcement emailed to Inman.
Nonetheless, Maynard advised Bloomberg that such claims are “flatly contradicted by what she told numerous people both orally and in writing over many years.”
Just some days after Douglas Elliman introduced Lorber’s retirement, former brokerage President and CEO Scott Durkin was terminated, in response to a submitting made with the SEC. Richard Ferrari, who had headed brokerage operations in New York Metropolis and the Northeast stepped into Durkin’s previous place.
The brokerage reported a modest annual improve in its income throughout a third-quarter earnings name on Thursday morning, as Liebowitz burdened a renewed concentrate on exploring acquisitions in ancillary providers as a way to enhance the agency’s backside line.
Liebowitz additionally appeared wanting to characterize the brand new quarter as the beginning of a “new era” for the brokerage, including that “the best days at Douglas Elliman are truly ahead of us.”
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