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Former chairman, president and CEO of Douglas Elliman Inc. Howard Lorber reportedly disclosed he had had intimate relationships with two of the firm’s female brokers during his tenure as the company’s leader, during an interview by a special committee of the board in advance of his retirement about two weeks ago.
Lorber’s retirement announcement was made on Oct. 22, at which point the firm also announced that board director Michael Liebowitz would be appointed as the new chairman and CEO.
However, a few days later, The Wall Street Journal reported that Lorber had been pressured to resign, as the firm’s financial losses had mounted over the last two years, and concerns grew about company culture, particularly after news broke that two long-time top agents, Tal and Oren Alexander, were facing multiple lawsuits for sexual assault. Some allegations against them came from agents within Douglas Elliman.
During a five-hour-long internal inquiry via videoconference on Oct. 8, Lorber was questioned by lawyers employed by a special committee of the board of directors about his personal life and allegations of sexual harassment at the brokerage, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Previously, the board determined that an internal review that had been conducted by Douglas Elliman lawyer Marc Kasowitz, who is also Lorber’s lawyer and friend, was not adequately impartial.
Jennine Gourin | Douglas Elliman
Following the Oct. 8 interview, the special committee determined that Lorber behaved inappropriately, according to a Bloomberg source familiar with the matter. During that interview, the source said that Lorber disclosed he had engaged in intimate relationships with Jennine Gourin and Jessica Cohen while their licenses were active at Douglas Elliman. Both women are still affiliated with the firm.
Lawyers for Lorber did not immediately respond to Inman’s request for comment.
In its statement announcing Lorber’s retirement, Douglas Elliman thanked him for his “strategic vision and years of dedication and hard work.” A filing with the SEC said that his departure “was not due to any disagreement with the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices.”
According to Douglass Maynard, another lawyer representing Lorber, Elliman does not have a company policy against consensual relationships between employees and independent brokers.
Douglas Elliman declined to comment on the revelation of Lorber’s relationships with Gourin and Cohen to Inman.
Gourin attended the Hampton Classic Horse show with Lorber in 2013, The New York Post reported, and the Southampton Hospital benefit in 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported, as well as other events. During those two years, Gourin closed more than half a million in commissions, according to data Maynard provided to Bloomberg, which elevated her to the top-earning chairman’s circle.
Jessica Cohen | Douglas Elliman
“When asked, Mr. Lorber on occasion recommended Ms. Gourin, as he has done with hundreds of other agents, both male and female,” Maynard told Bloomberg, when asked if Lorber had ever referred Gourin for listings.
Gourin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The other broker Lorber named as someone he had been in a relationship with was Jessica Cohen, whose name surfaced earlier this year in relation to sexual assault and rape claims made against long-time Elliman agents and Official cofounders Tal and Oren Alexander.
Cohen told The New York Times earlier this year that she had had a drink with the Alexander brothers at a party in Manhattan in 2010, and hours later woke up in Mount Sinai West Hospital, unable to recall details of what had happened to her. A medical report from that night shows that a bystander had found her alone in the street and called 911.
Two years after the incident occurred and after Cohen had tried to piece together what happened that night with other Douglas Elliman colleagues, Cohen told Lorber in confidence over a game of chess that she believed she had been drugged by Tal and Oren Alexander. Cohen asked Lorber to keep the incident a secret out of fear of retaliation by the Alexanders, and therefore, no formal HR complaint was ever issued, Elliman representatives said.
“Over at least a decade ago, a broker told a senior executive about having blacked out at a social event,” Douglas Elliman reps said in a statement issued in July. “She said that she did not know what, if anything, happened, she did not specify who may have been involved, and she insisted on absolute confidentiality. Douglas Elliman respected her wishes, and she has been a valued colleague at the company since then.”
Michael Willemin, an attorney representing Cohen, said the idea that Cohen had a romantic relationship with Lorber, or that any alleged relationship made it easier for her to become a top agent, was “categorically false.”
“Cohen was a top broker long before she met Mr. Lober, and the treatment that she suffered at his hands and that of Douglas Elliman have had a profoundly negative impact on her life and career,” Willemin said in a statement emailed to Inman.
However, Maynard told Bloomberg that such claims are “flatly contradicted by what she told numerous people both orally and in writing over many years.”
Just a few days after Douglas Elliman announced Lorber’s retirement, former brokerage President and CEO Scott Durkin was terminated, according to a filing made with the SEC. Richard Ferrari, who had headed brokerage operations in New York City and the Northeast stepped into Durkin’s old position.
The brokerage reported a modest annual increase in its revenue during a third-quarter earnings call on Thursday morning, as Liebowitz stressed a renewed focus on exploring acquisitions in ancillary services in order to improve the firm’s bottom line.
Liebowitz also seemed eager to characterize the new quarter as the start of a “new era” for the brokerage, adding that “the best days at Douglas Elliman are truly ahead of us.”
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