Go Mortgage sues ex-director over costly alleged sabotage

A former director at Go Mortgage defamed the lender to its counterparties and purposefully bungled its loan pipeline hedging, causing millions of dollars in damage, the firm said. 

Katie Chikonde's actions last July allegedly caused Fannie Mae to temporarily suspend Go Mortgage's seller/service number, preventing the lender from delivering loans, it said. The company is suing the former director of capital markets for computer fraud and trade secrets violations in a suit filed last week in an Ohio federal court. 

"Chikonde's actions were effectuated by a vendetta against the Company, on account of her lack of job satisfaction and unhappiness with the terms of her compensation," wrote lawyers for Go Mortgage in the complaint. 

The lender's attorneys declined to comment Tuesday, while a representative for Go Mortgage didn't respond to a request for comment. Chikonde, who works in the same position at Denver-based Dart Bank, didn't respond to a message seeking comment. 

GSF Mortgage Corp. hired Chikonde in January 2021, long before its acquisition last spring, according to the lawsuit. In her position, Chikonde was the sole authorized employee responsible for overseeing hedge, product and pricing engine operations through the company's platform with Optimal Blue. 

"In essence, her primary duty was to ensure that the underlying data to be relied upon to effect these strategies was always correct and up to date," the suit said. 

Chikonde abruptly resigned July 10, 2022, but not before going on an internal disinformation campaign, according to the complaint. She called the company's investors, warehouse lenders and government-sponsored enterprises and told them false information, including that the firm had nobody to run its capital markets department. 

Go Mortgage alleges Fannie Mae temporarily suspended its seller/service number, while other undisclosed counterparties terminated and or temporarily stopped their business relationship with the firm. The company said it had to explain to its counterparties that it was still ready for business. 

The former director allegedly deleted internal and cloud-based files regarding the company's business operations, altered passwords to prevent access to the files by others, and forwarded confidential financial information to her personal email address. 

She also entered false information and erroneous settings in Optimal Blue, changes that weren't discovered by Go Mortgage until four months later in December 2022, it said. 

"Chikonde's actions caused The Company to hedge its loan pipeline based on false and inaccurate information," the lawsuit said. "Ultimately, Chikonde's conduct resulted in the Company realizing severe financial losses."

The 18-page lawsuit didn't elaborate on Chikonde's motives, nor the amount of damages the company suffered or is seeking. A summons in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio was issued to Chikonde Monday. 

The Columbus, Ohio-based Go Mortgage has grown in the past year despite the market's downturn, adding nearly 170 employees last November from Finance of America to boost its East Coast presence. The lender counted over $887 million in mortgage volume last year and counts $361 million in volume this year through April, according to data from S&P Global. 

The lawsuit adds to a long list of lender complaints against former employees for misappropriation of trade secrets, although many of those cases allege poaching and theft of client leads rather than intentional sabotage.