Arnold Pinkston, the chief legal counsel at analytics and software firm CoreLogic, is leaving the company as it grapples with an inquiry from the U.S. Justice Department into its popular multiple listing software platform and how MLS members use it. The news was first reported by The Real Deal on Wednesday.
Arnold Pinkston
Pinkston’s resignation, however, “was not the result of any disagreements with” CoreLogic, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission document filed by the publicly-traded company on Wednesday. Instead, the document adds, Pinkston has simply “accepted another professional opportunity.”
The document also states that Pinkston’s departure from CoreLogic will be finalized on June 14.
Alyson Austin, a spokesperson for CoreLogic, confirmed to Inman that Pinkston would be leaving the company and explained that he had received a job offer from a large medical device manufacturer in Orange County, California.
Pinkston previously built a career working for companies in the medical sector, Austin added, and the new job represents him “going back to a career that he spent many years doing.”
Pinkston joined CoreLogic in January 2018, and in that time “improved a number of our processes,” Austin also said. She added that “we’re very happy for him.”
Immediately prior to joining CoreLogic, Pinkston was a director at Bio Rad Laboratories, a medical diagnostics and technology company. He has also worked at the Janus Capital Group, and pharmaceutical companies Allergan and the Eli Lilly and Company.
CoreLogic provides data and analytics related to U.S. housing. The company’s databases include billions of records that cover virtually the entire U.S. Among other things, CoreLogic sells this data to multiple listing services (MLSs), putting it into the hands of hundreds of thousands of real estate professionals.
However, CoreLogic has also faced some additional legal controversy this year. In early May, the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR) accused CoreLogic of inappropriately selling data to a local county-level appraisal organization. ABoR later ordered that organization to destroy the data.
Then, last week, Inman obtained a letter in which the U.S. Department of Justice demanded a bevy of information from CoreLogic regarding its MLS data. The letter is part of a civil investigation being pursued under antitrust laws, though CoreLogic told Inman at the time that it is not the focus of the inquiry.
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