It looks like Douglas Elliman is getting dragged back into court.
That’s thanks to a new lawsuit, filed July 14, by Maria Trangelo-Molina. She previously worked at Portfolio Escrow — a company Douglas Elliman acquired in 2020 — and has named as defendants in the suit her former employer, Douglas Elliman of California, escrow officer Melinda Topete, Elliman COO William Begert, Elliman legal counsel Ari Markow, and Elliman Director of Business Development David Werth.
Trangelo-Molina claims she was wrongfully terminated and discriminated against on the basis of her gender.
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Though Trangelo-Molina’s case is new, many of the players involved may sound familiar because they were part of a previous lawsuit from former Portfolio Escrow President Bill Grasska. He alleged that Douglas Elliman had asked managers at Portfolio Escrow to inflate closing statements so that the Altman Brothers team would receive more commissions. Ultimately, the parties settled in December 2024.
Former escrow employee’s complaint
In her complaint, Trangelo-Molina — who served as Portfolio Escrow’s director of operations — claims she was excluded from what she called a “boys’ club” of decision-making at Elliman and ultimately terminated in June 2024. That happened, she alleged, after she raised concerns about potential regulatory violations and executive compensation, among other things.
Douglas Elliman declined to comment on the lawsuit. Lawyers for Trangelo-Molina did not immediately respond to Inman’s request for comment.
“Shocked and blindsided, Ms. Trangelo-Molina repeatedly asked for the reasons behind her termination,” the complaint states. “Each time, she received the same vague response: ‘the company decided to part ways with you.’ No specific justification was provided.”
The former escrow executive also alleged that the Altman Brothers “persistently” engaged in unlawful escrow transactions, instructing the escrow officer who handled their deals to not adjust commissions even in cases where price reductions occurred — and to take the blame if homesellers noticed the discrepancy.
Matt Altman of the Altman Brothers told Inman that this was a grab for attention by Trangelo-Molina by way of using the Altman name.
“This is the second time a disgruntled former employee of a company we don’t operate has used the Altman Brothers’ name to generate publicity for their claims,” Altman said in a text. “Once again, we are not named as defendants, and we have nothing to do with this case.”
Trangelo-Molina also alleged that after being terminated, she was never paid over $100,000 in earned commissions.
Portfolio Escrow’s response
Last Friday, Portfolio Escrow filed its own cross-complaint against Trangelo-Molina, alleging embezzlement, fraud, breach of contract and other allegations.
The cross-complaint alleges that Trangelo-Molina “spent the last decade routinely stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Portfolio.”
The escrow company also alleged that during an internal investigation, it learned that Trangelo and Kari Yocam — a former relationship manager at the firm — conspired to pay illegal kickbacks to Oppenheim Group founder Jason Oppenheim dating back to at least 2015. Oppenheim was identified by an Inman investigation in December 2024, although he had previously only been referred to in lawsuits as a “high-profile Los Angeles real estate broker that is now a star of a reality television show.”
The luxury broker was not named as a defendant in the counter-complaint filed on July 18, and told Inman that his comments remained unchanged from the previous lawsuit filed by Douglas Elliman in which he was referenced, but unnamed. At that time, he acknowledge to Inman, that he had engaged in some kind of structure with Portfolio Escrow and “They assured me, up and down, that it was completely appropriate, and that they had run the structure by their company and their accountants and counsel, etc., and that it was an appropriate structure.”
The complaint also alleges that Trangelo-Molina, Yocam and others conspired to provide illegal kickbacks to other Realtors through the ruse of providing coffee cart services and open houses in exchange for escrow business, a move prohibited by the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.
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