Saunders Real Estate Company Files Lawsuit Against Compass For Alleged Database Hacking

Compass, a real estate company that just opened in the Hamptons, is being sued for allegedly hacking into the database of rival company Saunders and Associates and stealing their listings.

The lawsuit was taken to federal court in Central Islip on Sunday where judge Leonard Wexler issued a temporary restraining order against Compass and several employees.

The restraining order would require the employees to “preserve the data taken and to cooperate with a forensic review of any phones, tablets and computers that may have been used during the breach,” according to 27east.

Saunders and Associates is claiming that Meg Salem, who was a top-producing broker at Saunders, earning $1.2 million last year, before resigned to work at Compass in November following Vanessa Bogan, Jesse Spooner, and marketing administrator Jessica Grainger-Rozzi, who are all named in the complaint.

According to the lawsuit, two weeks after Salem, Bogan and Spooner left Saunders, on Nov. 2, Nov. 3 and Nov. 17, they “used stolen login credentials, hacked into Saunders’s password-protected system and copied more than 11,600 listings and associated confidential information,” before the breach was discovered on Nov. 17 by Anna Alexopoulous, a Saunders employee, who told a co-worker that someone hacked into the database using her logon credentials, 27east reports.

Saunders is seeking monetary damages that have not yet been determined

Compass is denying the allegations.

“Instead of discussing the claim with Compass or Ms. Salem, Saunders rushed to court to file a temporary restraining order (TRO) in an apparent attempt to create a story in the press and chill any further agent departures,” a company spokesman said in a statement. “Compass policy does not permit our agents to engage in any of the activities alleged in the suit and consequently did not object to the Saunders TRO hearing as it aligns with existing Company policy. Compass has no culpability in any of the alleged actions and will continue its focus on building the premier real estate company in the Hamptons.”

Several lawsuits have been filed against Compass since it launched in 2013 and raising a total of $125 million in capital.

In November, another local firm Brown Harris Stevens sued former employee Ed Reale, who began working for Compass in October, for allegedly violating a non-compete agreement and claimed that Compass was illegally “poaching competitors’ employees,” according to 27east.

In 2014, the real estate company Corcoran filed a lawsuit against Compass for “poaching its talent” and that same year CitiHabitats filed a lawsuit against their agents of accessing its proprietary listing system, 27east reports.

The two lawsuits were settled.