NEXA expands lawsuit against former employee, adds defendants

NEXA Lending is continuing its legal battle against former employee Kristine Wake and has expanded its lawsuit, alleging that Wake and others misappropriated trade secrets, violated contracts and attempted to recruit NEXA employees to a competitor.

The original suit, filed in May 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, only named Wake, a former senior employee who led NEXA’s Mortgage Academy training program and handled human resources.

As of Oct. 31, the Chandler, Arizona-based lender added Matthew Grella, his wife, Sheridan Murray-Grella, and Platinum One Lending as defendants to the suit.

‘Civil conspiracy’

NEXA claims the group used confidential information from its internal Mortgage Academy training program to benefit Platinum One Lending, a Michigan-based competitor in which Grella holds an ownership interest.

NEXA also accuses Grella and Platinum One of encouraging Wake’s breaches and working with her to recruit NEXA’s staff to harm the company. The company calls this a civil conspiracy.

The amendment builds upon the May 2025 filing, which alleges that NEXA learned in September 2024 that Wake was involved in an effort to create or manage a competing company called NEXXT Level Mortgage. It claims she solicited approximately 12 NEXA employees for the business while still being employed at NEXA. The filing said Wake asked these employees to sign nondisclosure agreements.

NEXA also alleges that Wake maintained an internet domain name associated with NEXA’s training program, WhyNexaAcademy.com, which she has refused to release to NEXA unless she is paid a fee of $18,000.

The suit also alleges that Wake, who had access to NEXA’s confidential business and training materials — including marketing plans and internal procedures — took the materials when she left and used them for herself and her new employer, Platinum One Lending.

May’s suit asserts that Wake violated the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, breached her contract and loyalty of duty, displayed acts of unfair competition and misappropriated trade secrets.

NEXA is seeking damages exceeding $75,000, punitive awards and a court order requiring Wake to transfer the WhyNexaAcademy.com domain. The defendants have not yet filed responses to the amended complaint.

Attorneys for both the defendants and plaintiff, as well as Platinum One Lending, did not immediately respond to HousingWire‘s requests for comment.

Grella shared a statement with HousingWire that called the lawsuit “frivolous” and “damaging to NEXA’s business.”

“This is just the latest development in the ongoing saga of what I feel is serious misconduct by Mr. Kortas. As I have detailed in my own complaints against him,” the statement read. “… This lawsuit in particular demonstrates his willingness to launch a personal vendetta against anyone who disagrees with him. I am disappointed to see the company we built together get dragged down by what I believe to be his prioritizing fronting in public over focusing on his responsibilities as a CEO.

“… Regarding this litigation, we look forward to demonstrating how baseless each and every claim in Mr. Kortas’s lawsuit is in court. The employee in question left NEXA due to what she felt was a toxic, untenable work environment, and she is not even serving in the same role at Platinum One as she served at NEXA.

“Mr. Kortas’ amorphous identification of the alleged trade secrets are incredibly vague because, we believe, the trade secrets do not exist. Furthermore, this employee responded with a much more substantial complaint alleging that Nexa failed to compensate her for her managerial work at the company. If that is indeed the case, we hope that Nexa repays her for any unpaid labor detailed in the complaint.”

Not NEXA’s first legal rodeo

NEXA has named the Grella couple in past litigation. In April 2024, a separate complaint filed by NEXA accuses Grella and his wife, Sheridan Murray-Grella, of breaching contracts and fiduciary duties, interfering with business relationships, and committing fraud and defamation, among other allegations.

Grella, who was NEXA’s co-founder alongside Mike Kortas after they each left Equity Prime Mortgage in 2017, was terminated from NEXA in March 2024 during buyout negotiations. Grella had previously filed a lawsuit alleging that Kortas used company funds for aircraft-related purchases without his approval. Kortas has denied the claims.