Sexual Harassment Prevalent At Parsippany Company, Lawsuit Claims

Content warning: This article contains sexual language.

PARSIPPANY, NJ — A lawsuit claims repeated sexual harassment and gender discrimination took place over several years at a company's Parsippany office.

The former marketing director of Residential Home Funding Corp. — now called RealFi Home Funding Corp. — laid out several allegations of unwanted sexual advances and abusive behavior from 2016-20.

The lawsuit — filed Sept. 22 in Morris County's Superior Court — names Residential Home Funding Corp., its senior leadership and several employees as defendants.

Among the allegations, the lawsuit claims that two colleagues — Marc Kaplan and Mike Longman — falsely accused Georganne Youngclaus, the plaintiff, of having a sexual relationship with another coworker. At a 2017 function in an Atlantic City hotel, employee Longman told Youngclaus in front of many colleagues that he, Youngclaus and the employee should "go upstairs (to his hotel room) so I can go down on you and jerk off," according to the lawsuit.

Youngclaus told Longman he was disgusting and walked away, the complaint claims. But later at the same function, loan officer Joe DiVali told Youngclaus to "go console Marc. He's lonely and needs your affection," according to the lawsuit. The plaintiff reported the incidents to owner Tom Marinaro, who laughed in Youngclaus's face and said "that's just how men are," the lawsuit claims.

RealFi Chief Operating Officer Jodi A. Mosiello denied the lawsuit's allegations to Patch.

"Although the company has not been formally served with a lawsuit from Ms. Youngclaus," Mosiello said via email, "RealFi (formally Residential Home Funding) categorically denies any misconduct and looks forward to disproving any of this disgruntled former employee’s unfounded allegations."

But while working for Residential Home Funding Corp., Youngclaus says she consistently received stellar reviews and compliments from supervisors for "exemplary work." The lawsuit states that Youngclaus reported misconduct to her supervisors and human resources, only for the company to take no action, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit lists several allegations of sexual harassment, gender discrimination and unprofessional conduct at the company, including the following:

• On "occasions too numerous to list" in 2016, Marinaro asked Youngclaus "you look like sh*t (sic), where's your makeup G?" the lawsuit states.
• Marinaro told Youngclaus to "dress sexy" at work events to attract more clients several times from 2016-19, according to the complaint. He admitted to Youngclaus that "due to her beautiful appearance, attracting new clients was what she was 'best at,'" the lawsuit says.
• Marinaro told Youngclaus, in front of many colleagues in 2017, that he had a "huge penis," the lawsuit claims.
• From 2016-19, Vice President of Branch Development Frank Kuri berated Youngclaus several times, according to the lawsuit. He once yelled directly in her face, "what the f*ck (sic) were you thinking?" — a tone he never took with male employees — according to the complaint.
• When Youngclaus was pregnant and still working, Kuri told her, "12 weeks maternity leave? That's too long, you need to bring your baby in and work," the lawsuit states.
• In 2017 and 2018, Marinaro instructed Youngclaus to go to local colleges and ask for "hot female volunteers" to work charity events," the lawsuit says. When Youngclaus asked if they could hire male volunteers, he said no, according to the complaint.
• The company hired a Jordanian marketing assistant in 2016, the lawsuit says. Julio Salazar, a company owner, said directly to the employee, "you look like a terrorist" and that he "saw a documentary about how his people were trying to bomb us and were coming to our country with fake identities to spy," the lawsuit claims.
• CEO Robert Lupi stole money from the company's charity and threatened Youngclaus that she better not tell anyone or she would lose her job or get in trouble, the lawsuit says.

The plaintiff seeks compensatory and punitive damages, attorneys' fees, lawsuit costs and other relief the court deems proper. Maria R. Luppino, Youngclaus's attorney, demanded a jury trial.

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