Josh Team accused of taking illegal kickbacks in battle between two tech companies
What started as a legal battle between two companies that previously worked together on a Keller Williams technology platform recently expanded to include industry veteran Josh Team.
A lawsuit originally filed in early february in the Tarrant County District Court of Texas accuses the former KW president of receiving millions of dollars in illegal “kickbacks” while serving as the franchisor’s top innovation offering. Team’s lawyers have denied these allegations in court filings. Team did not immediately respond to a request for comment from HousingWire.
The team left Keller Williams in 2021 after serving as president for about two years. In January 2024, he was appointed president of SERHANT.
Before Team became involved in the case, the lawsuit was between Aika And Eastern Media Consulting (EMC). In September, Aika filed a counterclaim, bringing Team into the lawsuit.
According to the counterclaim, in 2015, while working for Keller Williams, Team was asked to build a platform for the company. To do this, Team founded EMC, and a former colleague Aika, who was then contracted to build the software for KW. But according to the counterclaim, Aika sent some of the money she received as part of the contract back to Team through EMC.
According to the counterclaim, Keller Williams paid Aika more than $38 million over the course of eight years, from 2015 to 2023. Of that amount, Aika claims that more than $10 million ended up in Team’s pockets as part of a “kickback.”
Aika’s filing claims that the company was a legitimate business, but that Team “added zero value to this product,” claiming its only role was to “protect” the company’s contract with Keller Williams. Through the counterclaim, Aika asks the court to rule that the profit-sharing agreement between Aika and EMC was illegal, meaning that Aika would not be forced to pay EMC.
In a motion to dismiss Aika’s request, Team’s attorneys said Aika’s claims are “false” and that the version of the story would “create power.” The motion also claims that Aika’s filing was “a gross abuse of the legal system” that is intended “to bully a non-party into causing East Media to release meritorious claims against Aika.”
The team’s motion also notes that Aika denied paying illegal kickbacks during discovery, which is contrary to what the company claims in its counterclaim.
