NEXA Mortgage sues ex-director over trade secrets

NEXA Mortgage is accusing a former director, who developed loan officer training materials for the brokerage, of stealing proprietary information related to its educational materials and attempting to poach its employees.

The mortgage brokerage also accuses Kristine Wake, its former director of training, of holding the domain name for its loan officer training website, WhyNexaAcademy.com, hostage. Wake has allegedly demanded an $18,000 payment in exchange for releasing the domain to NEXA.

Wake joined the firm in 2020 and helped develop training materials for NEXA's Mortgage Academy Training Program, which covered topics such as marketing, generating referrals, pricing, and guidance on various phases of the mortgage application and approval process.

The mortgage brokerage, which currently sponsors over 3,000 loan officers, claims Wake decided to branch out and launch her own competing business dubbed NEXXT LEVEL Mortgage in 2024. 

In order to do so, the former director allegedly solicited a dozen of NEXA's employees. Wake at that time was still employed by NEXA, the complaint states.

However, the venture did not work out, resulting in the executive transitioning to Platinum One Lending and taking NEXA's confidential, proprietary training material with her.

"Upon information and belief, Wake continues to wrongfully use NEXA's confidential information for her own benefit and that of Platinum One to this day," the complaint said.

The suit, filed in an Arizona federal court on May 2, also names two other unidentified NEXA employees as defendants. Though it is not clear what their connection is to Wake and her transition out of the company.

NEXA accuses Wake of breaching her contractual obligations. Moreover, Wake purportedly not giving up the domain name to its training content is a breach of the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, the company said. The firm is seeking $75,000 in damages.

NEXA Mortgage did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Its former director of training could not immediately be reached. 

The mortgage brokerage has been involved in a number of contentious suits, including one with its co-founder Mat Grella.

Grella filed a suit against Mike Kortas, CEO of NEXA,  accusing him of misappropriating funds to purchase luxury aviation in mid- 2024. A countersuit was subsequently filed by Kortas.