NEXA Lending wants a restraining order on one of its former originators, claiming he's refusing to return customer leads, spreading false information and harassing the company's employees. 

The brokerage, listed in the complaint as NEXA Mortgage, sued Austin Dell'Abate last Friday in an Arizona federal court for theft of trade secrets and breach of contract. Since being fired for unprofessional conduct, Dell'Abate has disparaged the company publicly, requested five-figure payments and continues to withhold confidential customer data, according to the lawsuit. 

The company filed a motion for a preliminary injunction and a temporary restraining order against Dell'Abate, seeking a federal ruling to compel him to return NEXA's data and enforce his non-solicitation agreement. 

Dell'Abate worked for NEXA as an independent contractor between May and July, and is subject to covenants including a 12-month non-solicitation ban. The lender requires originators to compensate NEXA $7,500 for each solicited customer in violation of their agreements. 

Lenders frequently sue ex-workers for allegedly keeping customer leads or violating non-solicitation agreements, but fewer of those complaints include accusations of defamation and harassment. The Change Company last year won judgment against a former staffer who allegedly disparaged the firm and attempted to extort it for millions of dollars.

NEXA doesn't describe Dell'Abate's demands as extortion, and in the restraining order motion clarifies it doesn't seek to restrain his speech. 

"It seeks only to stop his ongoing and threatened misappropriation of NEXA's trade secrets and confidential information, to compel the return of NEXA's property, and to enforce the non-solicitation covenants to which the defendant agreed," a filing read.

Defamatory posts and five-figure demands

The brokerage says it fired Dell'Abate on July 22 for a documented pattern of abusive and unprofessional conduct. That included complaints from unnamed independent loan-processing companies, a federal agency, NEXA's wholesale lender, a borrower and colleagues. 

NEXA told Dell'Abate that his five loans in progress at the time of his firing would be handled by a NEXA employee. The originator immediately refused to return NEXA's loan files and leads, asserting that they belonged to him because they "went through my website 1st."

Dell'Abate allegedly embarked on a defamation campaign, publishing posts criticizing NEXA's recruiting practices as predatory. He also accused the firm's chief executive of collaborating with investors to skim thousands of dollars off each transaction. NEXA denied the accusations.

The ex-originator also harassed the company's human resources, accounting, legal and other staff. In recent weeks Dell'Abate has also demanded from $20,000 to $50,000 for unfounded compensation from NEXA, it said. 

Neither a spokesperson for NEXA, its attorney, nor Dell'Abate responded to requests for comment. According to his self-reported employment history in Nationwide Multistate Licensing System records, Dell'Abate has worked for eight lenders over the past two years. 

NEXA is one of the nation's leading brokerages, and founder and CEO Mike Kortas hasn't shied from promoting his firm's unique offerings. The lender's growth hasn't been without controversy, although Kortas last month settled a bad breakup with his co-founder. The NEXA boss also recently walked back some criticism of loanDepot, but maintained a competitive stance in the lenders' recruiting dispute.