eXp Realty
October 21, 2026
LOS ANGELES, California - October 21, 2026
Two former eXp Realty agents accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a fellow agent at company recruiting events have reached a confidential settlement with their accuser, ending a federal civil trial in Los Angeles just two days after it began and effectively closing out the lawsuit that put a spotlight on eXp's recruiting culture.
Attorneys for Anya Roberts filed a notice on Wednesday, October 21, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California stating that she had reached a settlement with David S. Golden and Michael L. Bjorkman that "fully and finally" resolves all of her claims against the two men. The parties said they expect to file dismissal paperwork within 15 days after the settlement agreement is finalized. Financial terms were not disclosed. Golden and Bjorkman have denied the allegations, and their attorneys did not comment publicly on the deal.
The agreement came three days after Roberts settled with the case's corporate defendants. On Sunday, October 18, one day before trial, she disclosed a confidential settlement in principle with eXp Realty LLC, its parent company AGNT, Inc., formerly known as eXp World Holdings, and founder Glenn Sanford. eXp has said that settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing and that it has consistently denied the claims. With both settlements in place, no defendants remain to be tried in Roberts' case.
Roberts, an eXp agent, filed suit in December 2023. She alleged that Golden and Bjorkman, who were prominent recruiters inside eXp's revenue share system, drugged and sexually assaulted her during company recruiting events in 2020, and that once she would not do everything Golden wanted, including choosing him as her sponsor, he stalled her career. Her complaint also accused eXp and its leadership of knowingly benefiting from the two men's recruiting production while ignoring complaints about their conduct.
In August, U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. split the case into two trials. The first, against Golden and Bjorkman alone, opened Monday, October 19. The second, against eXp Realty, AGNT and Sanford, had been set for November 16 before the company settled. Some claims against AGNT and Sanford, including sex trafficking, vicarious liability and negligent hiring theories, had already been dropped in August, though eXp Realty itself still faced them until the October 18 agreement.
The brief trial was contentious. Hundreds of pages of explicit text messages were put before the court, and the judge ordered the defense to pare down more than 230 pages of intimate messages it wanted to use and voiced frustration over the volume of last-minute filings. By the second day the courtroom had been temporarily closed to the public. The settlement was announced the following day.
"We are very pleased to have reached a resolution that allows our client to put this litigation behind her and move forward with the next chapter of her life," attorneys for Roberts said in a statement.
The settlements do not end the legal fallout. A related federal case known as Acevedo, filed in February 2023 by four women who accuse Golden and Bjorkman of using eXp recruiting events and promises of career help to lure and drug them, remains pending before the same judge, with eXp Realty, AGNT and Sanford among the defendants. That case is scheduled for trial in March 2028. Andrea Hirsch, an attorney for the plaintiffs in both cases, said that while Roberts has resolved her claims, four other women are still waiting for their day in court and the legal team's focus now turns to that case.
eXp also faces separate retaliation suits. Top agent Noelle Nielsen, who gave a detailed account of the two men's alleged misconduct at company events, has an ongoing case against eXp and Sanford in Minnesota state court, and former employee Ashley Golladay sued eXp in Washington state court after reporting harassment by another executive. A shareholder derivative suit in Delaware accusing Sanford and other directors of ignoring sexual misconduct has also been allowed to proceed.
Bjorkman was arrested in Las Vegas in 2021 and charged with two counts of sexual assault, but prosecutors later dropped the criminal case, saying they could not prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.
The court activity comes during a period of transition at the top of the company. Sanford stepped down as chief executive of AGNT in early October and was succeeded by Leo Pareja, who had led eXp Realty since 2024. Sanford remains chairman of the board.
eXp Realty is a cloud-based residential real estate brokerage that pays agents revenue share for recruiting other agents, a structure that has drawn comparisons to network marketing. Its parent, AGNT, Inc., trades on Nasdaq.
Npros will continue to follow the Acevedo case and eXp's other pending litigation.