A growing number of women have come forward with allegations against a prominent luxury real estate duo, accusing them of drugging and sexually assaulting them during lavish, champagne-laden work gatherings.
The Daily Mail reports that four additional individuals have recently initiated legal action against real estate agents David Golden and Michael Bjorkman. This development increases the tally of women pursuing civil lawsuits for sexual assault against the duo to nine.
Golden and Bjorkman were associated with eXp Realty, a rapidly expanding cloud-based brokerage often likened to the Amazon of the real estate world, renowned for its opulent parties and a culture that embraced both hard work and hard play.
The latest allegations mirror those made by Fabiola Acevedo, Anya Roberts, and Christy Lundy, who filed lawsuits in 2023. These women claim they lost consciousness during festivities with the realtors and awoke in the midst of or following alleged sexual assaults.
One of the new claimants was on the verge of marriage, with the ceremony just two weeks away, when she claimed to have lost consciousness at a work-related dinner attended by Bjorkman, who is married, along with other eXp staff.
According to her deposition, her last recollection was being at a strip club and sitting on Bjorkman’s lap. She later awoke in his bed, where he allegedly informed her that he had recorded her performing a sex act.
Also included in the filings are texts Golden and Bjorkman allegedly sent each other bragging about ‘banging’ women and an email from a female staff member to Golden apparently joking about sexually transmitted diseases.
The scandal has been likened to that of the Alexander brothers, two of whom were high-powered realtors, who were convicted of sex trafficking charges after a wave of civil lawsuits from female victims.
Michael Bjorkman is accused by multiple women in civil lawsuits of running a ‘boys club’ culture where powerful male brokers allegedly drugged and raped them. He has denied any wrongdoing
David Golden with two performers in Las Vegas, who were not involved in the lawsuits. He captioned the photo on socials saying, ‘I couldn’t keep my eyes off of them’
A message from Bjorkman to Golden following a work trip to Mexico that was added into court filings
Both Golden and Bjorkman have denied all previous allegations of sexual impropriety and they did not respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment about the new claims.
The legal filings also accuse eXp management of fostering a ‘boys’ club’ party culture while ignoring complaints from female staff.
Critics say the firm’s structure – where agents receive a cut of the commissions earned by the people they recruit – creates powerful incentives to protect top performers, with little appetite to investigate high earners even when serious allegations are raised.
Many of the women say in their depositions they took their complaints to senior management, or even raised concerns directly with eXp CEO Glenn Sanford, but claim their reports went nowhere.
Neither Sanford nor eXp responded to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
Newly released internal emails show staff raised concerns about Golden and Bjorkman’s behavior as early as 2018, including allegations that Bjorkman drugged and assaulted women. Despite the warnings, the pair remained at the company until 2023.
One of the four new unnamed women to come forward is a former eXp agent from Colorado, who alleged in her deposition that she attended a group dinner for an eXp work event with Bjorkman and three other female real estate agents who worked at the company.
‘We had drinks at dinner,’ she said in the lawsuit , adding that she was told the next day she immediately started acting erratic.
Michael Bjorkman and David Golden
‘I remember getting to the strip club. [But after that,] it’s a blackout,’ she said. She claimed she had a memory flash of sitting on Bjorkman’s lap at the strip club.
The next morning, her friends told her she was ‘acting like a stripper on Mike Bjorkman, in front of all my colleagues, in front of people I’ve just met, in front of my bosses,’ she said in her deposition.
‘I have no recollection of coming to the hotel,’ she added of where she awoke the next day. ‘That is all lost memory.’
The woman, who had just met Bjorkman that night, alleged she woke up in Bjorkman’s bed the morning after, ‘shocked’ because she was getting married two weeks later.
‘And he was married, so it was shocking for sure,’ she continued in her deposition testimony.
She said in the deposition that she had to be quiet while Bjorkman answered a call from his wife, claiming he told her: ‘Hey, hush hush.’
When he hung up, he allegedly called her a ‘party girl’ who had been ‘acting wild’ the previous night, according to her deposition testimony.
She claimed he said ‘that I took his phone, put porn on it, and started masturbating while he filmed it. I immediately didn’t believe him because I would not do that.
‘He said he had video – that meant blackmail.’ The location and date of the alleged attack has been redacted from the lawsuit to protect the accuser’s identity.
Christy Lundy is also suing the company over claims of sexual assault
Michael Bjorkman, who is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting women in multiple civil lawsuits, enjoys a day out on a boat
A female staffer’s exchange with Golden which appears to allude to sexually transmitted diseases. The staffer said she later began to question her relationship with Golden
Another woman alleged in her deposition that at an eXp event in California in 2019, she had a single glass of white wine, then began stumbling.
She alleged Bjorkman said ‘you’ve been drugged’ and warned her to ‘stay next’ to him.
‘As soon as I stumbled, Mike Bjorkman was there – almost like he caught me – and said, ‘You’ve been drugged,” she said in the deposition.
‘Mike Bjorkman was being Mike Bjorkman,’ the woman continued. ‘He would always buy drinks. He’s like a cool frat guy.’
She said in her deposition she is unsure what happened with Bjorkman while blacked out and claimed that she woke up in the morning in his hotel room ‘confused and disheveled.’
A third former employee alleges in a deposition that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Bjorkman in 2007 in California.
She accused Bjorkman of drugging and raping her in a hotel room after he drove her to a class for her real estate license, then suggested they study afterwards at a nearby hotel, according to the court documents.
‘We went to the Marriott Hotel in Santa Monica,’ she said. ‘We had our books, and I can remember him paying cash for a hotel room, and I thought that was weird.’
The woman claims in her deposition Bjorkman purchased a room with a balcony, then made them both a drink.
‘[I] didn’t see any harm in having a few drinks while we’re studying for this eight-hour test,’ she said in the deposition.
Anya Roberts, a former real estate agent at eXp, alleged in a lawsuit that she was repeatedly drugged and sexually assaulted at work events
The lead plaintiff is Fabiola Acevedo, a Florida-based real estate agent who filed a suit in February 2023, alleging that she was drugged and sexually assaulted at a recruiting event
A female witness, who is named in the deposition as Holly Madden, claimed that she was invited by Bjorkman to an event in Daytona Beach, Florida. She claimed she received this message after the event
‘This was sometime around lunchtime. It was still daylight out. And really the next memory I have was waking up with Mike Bjorkman on top of me, having sex with me on the bed,’ she said in her deposition.
‘And then I don’t remember much except that all of a sudden I was facedown with somebody having anal sex with me.’
The woman said in her deposition that she nearly threw up in Bjorkman’s truck when he drove her back to her car.
A fourth accuser alleges in a deposition that she woke up in Golden’s hotel room in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in 2019 with another woman on top of her, nude and touching her after she blacked out after one drink the night before.
A text in February 2020 from Bjorkman to Golden appears to reference the encounter. It read: ‘The one you banged in Mexico?’
A female eXp employee who was once close with Golden has also testified against him after becoming increasingly concerned by the allegations.
Playful exchanges between the staffer and Golden are included in the new court filings. In one email, Golden wrote to her: ‘Love you. Sorry that I am a bad influence. I’m just being me.’
She later sent him a joking letter asking whether he was ‘as bad as the Coronavirus,’ saying he left ‘young girls sick’ and asking: ‘How long can this go on?’
David Golden, Michael Bjorkman at an eXp event at the W hotel together
What is described in court documents as an internal memo at eXp speaking about the alleged behavior of Bjorkman reaching complaint status
David Golden claimed in his own deposition that he regularly ordered bottles of Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB or ‘roofies’) and used the drug
But the woman has since turned against her former friend and testified for the plaintiffs.
In a witness deposition, she said multiple women told her about Golden and Bjorkman’s alleged abuse, including claims she witnessed Golden ordering the date rape drug Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) – or ‘roofies’ – to his hotel room at work events.
She also said the growing allegations made her reassess her own relationship with the pair, describing some of their behavior as ‘strange’ – including the fact they often shared hotel rooms and invited her to stay with them.
The women accused Bjorkman and Golden of slipping the drugs, which in high quantities is known to cause memory loss, into their drinks.
Golden claimed in his own deposition that he regularly ordered bottles of GHB and took it once or twice a week going back to 2014.
Bjorkman did not admit to taking the drug, but says he was slipped it twice in his life.
The 2023 lawsuits filed by Acevedo, Roberts and Lundy make similar allegations.
Acevedo, a Florida-based real estate agent recruited by Golden, claimed in a February 2023 suit that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Bjorkman.
She alleged that in 2018, Bjorkman convinced her to join him at a networking event at the Pelican Hill Hotel in Newport Beach, California, telling her it would help her career.
When she arrived at the event, a hotel staffer told her she did not have a room reserved in her name and that they were sold out, the suit claimed.
Tami Sims and Christiana ‘Christy’ Lundy, real estate agents in Tennessee and California, both later joined Acevedo’s lawsuit, alleging they were also drugged and sexually assaulted by Bjorkman and Golden.
Lundy alleged in her filing that after an eXp event in 2020 in Las Vegas, Bjorkman and Golden invited her for a drink in their suite, where she alleges she drank one cup of vodka and soda water.
Roberts claimed that in February 2020, she flew to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to attend an eXp networking event and blacked out after one drink in Golden’s room.
She alleged she woke to Golden standing over her, massaging his penis over his pants, according to her complaint.
