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Former Keller Williams CEO John Davis has settled claims of sexual misconduct with his accuser and says her withdrawal of the claims bolsters his case against the real estate franchisor, Gary Keller and former KW president Josh Team.
Meanwhile, Keller Williams is asking the court to hold Davis in contempt and Davis must respond by Friday.
In a Feb. 26 press release, Davis’s legal team publicly announced that Keller Williams franchisee Inga Dow had recanted her allegations of sexual misconduct against him and that this “strengthens his racketeering, antitrust and embezzlement case against the residential real estate giant, its founder, its former president and other executives — who knew the allegations were fabricated and weaponized them against Davis.”
In a statement to Inman, Keller Williams slammed the timing of Davis’s announcement, which coincided with the franchisor’s flagship annual event, Family Reunion.
“Once again, John Davis’s lawyers appear to be taking orders from his publicists,” KW spokesperson Darryl Frost said.
“Nearly three months after Ms. Dow dismissed her claims against Mr. Davis and on the morning of Keller Williams’ biggest event of the year, he’s back trying to litigate his allegations in the court of public opinion. Not surprisingly, this is yet another page out of his same playbook — attempting to end-run the legal system with baseless claims and misleading press releases.
“If Mr. Davis wishes to pursue his specious claims, we are fully prepared to meet him in arbitration. We have no comment on Mr. Davis’s resolution of the sexual assault claims against him, and the matter has no bearing on our business or on Davis’s own, baseless claims.”
In a March 2022 amended complaint, Dow, CEO of Keller Williams Realty Fort Worth and Keller Williams Realty Johnson County in Texas, alleged she endured years of sexual misconduct, harassment and abuse at Davis’s hands and that Keller Williams did nothing to address the alleged behavior and continued to retaliate against her for reporting it.
In November 2022, Davis sued Keller, Dow, Team and Keller Williams, alleging he resigned from KW because of a disagreement with Keller about establishing across-the-board market caps for franchises, which Davis felt were “likely to significantly damage profitability for franchise owners and agents,” and that Keller and Team responded by smearing him and withholding Dow’s accusations from him when he was negotiating the sale of his KW market center regions after his resignation, resulting in tens of millions in financial losses.
In September 2023, Dow permanently dismissed her claims against Keller Williams, Keller and other KW executives, but not against Davis.
Inga Dow
On Nov. 27, Dow dismissed all claims against Davis “with prejudice,” meaning that she cannot refile them, and with that, officially closed her case. In that filing, attorneys for Dow attached an affidavit from Dow that was created “[p]ursuant to the terms of the settlement.”
In that affidavit, Dow said, “I made statements about Mr. Davis that wrongly accused him of misconduct, including harassment, sexual assault and rape. I fully retract all of these statements and apologize to Mr. Davis.”
Andrew Miltenberg
Two days later, Davis dismissed his claims against Dow with prejudice. In a statement, Davis’s attorney, Andrew Miltenberg of Nesenoff & Miltenberg, told Inman, “Mr. Davis only agreed to settle his case against Inga Dow based on Ms. Dow’s sworn affidavit … including her admission as to having wrongly accused Mr. Davis, her retraction, and her written apology to Mr. Davis.”
Asked why the affidavit does not say that Dow’s allegations were false, as Davis’s press release states, Davis said in a statement, “[I]t is my understanding that in her sworn statement, Inga Dow could not directly admit to previously lying under oath in her original complaint without being subject to perjury charges. That is why I agreed to the affidavit language. However, the spirit of the sworn affidavit serves to exonerate me from Dow’s untrue allegations.”
Davis’s spokesperson, Jamie Diaferia, told Inman Dow did not receive any money as part of the settlement. Dow and her attorney, Michael Kim, did not respond to requests for comment.
In February 2023, the court sent Davis’s suit into arbitration and, in March 2023, two Keller Williams market center owners, Colleen and Bart Basinski, sued Keller Williams, Keller, KW President Marc King and regional leaders Dan Holt and Colette Ching, alleging that they experienced retaliation for their association with Davis and for also refusing to follow the same business strategy regarding market caps that Davis objected to.
In August, Davis filed a second, racketeering lawsuit against Keller Williams, Keller and Team, which alleged, in part, that the franchisor had inflated key profitability metrics, such as company sales and profits, to convince individuals to purchase Keller Williams regions and market centers. The suit was amended in November to add accusations of embezzlement against Keller. KW responded by saying, “We will continue to follow the law and aggressively defend against [Davis’s] baseless claims.”
Gary Keller
In last week’s release, Davis alleged Keller was leading a conspiracy, “in which Keller Williams executives were using their power and platform to severely damage the businesses and reputations of KW franchise owners so they could seize the equity in their businesses and amass more power.”
“Investors and franchisees are seeing the facts that we’ve laid out in our lawsuit and saying, ‘This also has happened to me,'” Miltenberg said. “Gary Keller’s trying to capture all the franchises by locking owners into deals they can’t get out of and then either seizing these independently operated businesses or buying them back at a steep discount so he can control them like they were part of one big company, contrary to the franchise model.”
According to Davis, Dow’s withdrawal of her claims “is long-awaited vindication” for him and frees him up to focus on the racketeering lawsuit.
“I’ve been financially and reputationally diminished for standing up and pushing back against Gary Keller,” Davis said. “In addition to regaining what I’ve lost, my goal is to make sure no one else is harmed.”
However, in September, KW, Keller and Team filed a motion asking the court to hold Davis in civil contempt for filing that very racketeering lawsuit, after the court ordered him to resolve his claims through arbitration in the first suit he filed.
In October, Davis responded by saying that the claims in the suits were different, and therefore he was not violating the arbitration order. The following month, the second suit was transferred to the same court as the first suit. On Feb. 29, the court ordered Davis to “advise” the court on how to proceed regarding the motion for contempt by March 8, meaning Davis will inform the court whether he believes the second suit should be decided in court or through arbitration, Miltenberg told Inman.
“The parties are filing an updated status report on Friday advising as to the status of both cases as well as the motion for contempt,” he said in a statement.
