The Change Company Secures $94 Million Judgement
ANAHEIM, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Change Company CDFI, LLC ('The Change Company') announced today that it was awarded judgment from a state court in New York for over $94 million from Yeti Global Services ('YGS'). Former employee of The Change Company, Adam Levine, formed YGS and is its sole owner. The complaint filed by The Change Company alleged that YGS received documents stolen by Mr. Levine from The Change Company and facilitated Mr. Levine's scheme to extort The Change Company by planting damaging stories about The Change Company.
"Proceeds collected from this judgement will be utilized by The Change Company to further The Change Company's CDFI mission of financing homeownership for underbanked Americans."
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Steven Sugarman, the CEO of The Change Company, stated: 'We thank the court for its careful evaluation of the facts which led to this massive judgement in favor of The Change Company. While the damage done by Adam Levine cannot be fully remediated, this is a great first step to secure justice for The Change Company. Proceeds collected from this judgement will be utilized by The Change Company to further The Change Company's CDFI mission of financing homeownership for underbanked Americans.'
The Change Company, who was represented by Sanford Michelman, Jared Foley, and Samantha Drysdale of the law firm Michelman & Robinson, will pursue the collection of its judgement against YGS.
In its Motion for Default Judgment, the Change Company alleged that '[YGS] facilitated Mr. Levine's extortion schemes by accepting confidential documents and information stolen by Mr. Levine and allowing Mr. Levine to store the illegally obtained information on a cloud storage system that Defendant used for its own business… [YGS] also disseminated falsified and doctored [The Change Company's] documents – documents that Mr. Levine himself manufactured – to the news and media and represented the same to be true… Both internal and external investigations performed by diligence firms hired by [The Change Company], at great cost and expense, due to [YGS's] and Levine's smear campaign demonstrated that the document was both manipulated and false.'
As part of his scheme, Mr. Levine was alleged to have threatened to make false claims of wrongdoing against The Change Company to government agencies. All known investigations into The Change Company and its affiliates relating to Adam Levine have been closed with no adverse findings.
Mr. Levine, who was arrested in 2023 for impersonating an officer (Penal Code Section 538d(c)) and unlawful use of badge (Penal Code Section 538d(b)(2)), is also alleged to have previously threatened his prior employer TPG. In or around 2015, TPG filed suit against Mr. Levine alleging he made 'an escalating series of threats against TPG and its personnel, including that he would disclose sensitive and proprietary information to the media and that he would seek to plant damaging stories that would cause substantial harm to TPG and its business.' In connection with this lawsuit, Mr. Levine was ordered by a Texas court to return TPG's confidential documents and identify to whom he has disclosed TPG's confidential information. (https://www.reuters.com/article/markets/us/tpg-capitals-says-adam-levines-lawsuit-makes-false-assertions-idUSL2N0WZ1IS/)
The Change Company and its wholly owned subsidiary, Change Lending LLC, are community development financial institutions certified by the United States Department of the Treasury's CDFI Fund to provide financing to underserved, underbanked families across America.
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