The Anaheim, California-based parent of Change Lending filed suit in 2023 against Yeti Global Services, a company owned by its former chief of staff Adam Levine. Change accused Levine of stealing and delivering documents for Yeti that facilitated a $10 million extortion scheme against the company.

A New York judge awarded Change over $94 million in damages. The Change Co. was founded by former Banc of California CEO Steven Sugarman in 2018 and is one of the country's leading non-qualified mortgage lenders serving minority and low-income communities. 

Previously, Levine had sued the CDFI for wrongful termination and breach of contract. His lawsuit also claimed Change misrepresented the characteristics of loans sold to secondary market investors in violation of federal laws. 

"We thank the court for its careful evaluation of the facts which led to this massive judgment in favor of The Change Co.," Sugarman said in a press release. Sugarman, who also serves as Change's CEO, also called the ruling a "great first step to secure justice" for the lender.

"Proceeds collected from this judgment will be utilized by The Change Co. to further The Change Co.'s CDFI mission of financing homeownership for underbanked Americans," Sugarman added.

Why Change and Levine were in a legal battle

In its filing, Change said Levine threatened to report false claims of misconduct committed by the company to the federal government. Investigations related to Levine's allegations yielded no evidence of illegal activity by Change, the company noted. 

Following Levine's 2023 accusations, the lender temporarily lost CDFI certification from the Treasury Department to originate non-QM mortgages.

Change's countersuit against Levine stated that the former employee illicitly removed confidential material to store on Yeti's storage cloud system for its own business purposes. Yeti also "disseminated falsified and doctored documents – documents that Mr. Levine himself manufactured – to the news and media and represented the same to be true," the filing said. 

A former deputy press secretary under President George W. Bush, Levine was described in the lawsuit as a disgruntled former employee who had been reprimanded after displaying "erratic and hostile" behavior toward other staff prior to his termination, the New York Post previously reported. 

After leaving his role with the White House, Levine later joined Texas-based private equity firm TPG Capital, before he was forced out in 2014 under circumstances similar to those later reported by The Change Co. 

In a 2015 suit, TPG accused Levine of extortion after he allegedly threatened employees and took confidential documents to distribute to the media following his termination. The two parties settled later that year for an undisclosed sum.