A and N Mortgage Services also named two former employees and Select Lending Services, an Oregon-based brokerage owned by CMG, as defendants alongside its California competitor. The complaint filed in July in an Illinois federal court claims the information the loan originator and processor stole is worth over $1 million. 

Bradley Boden, who's listed as a regional manager for SLS in Chicago, allegedly sent confidential A and N customer information to his personal email between May 2023 and his resignation in January. The suit also claims Boden misappropriated a confidential A and N financing product for C08 visa holders, or customers with asylum applications pending. The departing originator allegedly recruited an existing referral partner for the program, to work with CMG. 

Boden, and A and N CEO and owner Neena Vlamis, declined to comment. Attorneys for the parties, Cooney-McCarthy and CMG didn't respond to requests for comment. 

A and N is a fraction of the size of CMG, with over $400 million in loan volume last year compared to the California lender's $15.8 billion in 2023, according to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. 

The lawsuit also accuses Boden, an 18-year veteran of A and N, of violating a non-solicitation clause in his employment agreement. Kristen Cooney-McCarthy, an Illinois-based loan processor, resigned at the same time as Boden. Two weeks prior, she allegedly emailed her income documents to Boden's wife, who forwarded them to Boden who later sent them from an A and N laptop to CMG recipients. 

Days prior to his resignation, Boden began requesting price checks from CMG for loan scenarios from his current workplace's system, the suit claims. Shortly after his resignation, while clearing his office, he also forwarded calls to his A and N office phone to his CMG line. 

Cooney-McCarthy also downloaded customer information, including profiles for over 20 of its customers, one day after submitting her resignation, the lender said. It fired her immediately upon finding out. 

A and N alleged other wrongdoings, such as Boden changing a login for the company's Zillow account to his CMG email address to divert leads, disparaging his former workplace to a third-party business, and Cooney-McCarthy copying her A&N email address on a CMG transaction to give the appearance her former workplace was involved. 

Customers eventually told A and N that Boden was using his CMG accounts to recruit them. The lawsuit also accuses a senior executive vice president at A and N of diverting customer information for CMG before departing to the rival in June, but did not name her as a defendant. 

Other than the value of information stolen, the complaint didn't specify damages sought. The Chicago firm is seeking an injunction restraining CMG from using alleged stolen data and to return it. 

Lenders flung numerous poaching and theft of trade secrets lawsuits at one another in recent years, but the volume of such complaints has fallen with the market's slowdown. Some companies have ended their yearslong fights, while other rivals, such as longtime foes Loandepot and CrossCountry Mortgage, continue to litigate claims.