Katie Sweeney denies accusations in AIME contract lawsuit

Katie Sweeney, a prominent broker advocate, is disputing accusations by her former organization that she directed almost $1 million in payments to herself. The Association of Independent Mortgage Experts raised the claim in response to its former leader’s lawsuit suggesting the trade group owes her money. The sides have traded allegations since Sweeney sued AIME in a Texas state court in February; subsequent federal court filings have AIME mentioning other industry players.

Only Sweeney and AIME are named as parties in the respective lawsuits. The fight stems from Sweeney’s involvement with AIME between 2022 and 2024, and regards her compensation for before and after her departure to work for the Broker Action Coalition.

“She engaged in self-servicing conduct that directed payments of over $900,000 to her personally,” a Sept. 10 filing by counsel for AIME read.

Sweeney, who today is executive vice president of strategy and broker advocacy at Rocket Pro, fired back at AIME and defended her advocacy work for brokers in a statement shared with National Mortgage News Thursday evening.

“This is about standing up to legal bullies and ensuring that brokers and the communities they serve have fair and honest advocates on their side,” read a statement with Sweeney’s signature and shared with her attorneys. “I look forward to sharing more of my experience from my tenure at AIME throughout the course of this process.”

In a response to Sweeney’s comments, AIME in a lengthy statement Friday afternoon said it believes the evidence will tell the full story, and that the court will rule in its favor.

“The heart of this matter is how Ms. Sweeney performed her duties and responsibilities as head of the governing body of the organization,” the statement read. “There is no bullying – simply an accounting for certain conduct.”

Why Katie Sweeney and AIME are fighting

Sweeney, who joined Rocket in January, was the former CEO of AIME, although the trade group disputed her title in an April counterclaim. Several articles quoting Sweeney during the latter part of her tenure at AIME call her the CEO.

According to Sweeney, she resigned from AIME in March 2024. The sides reached agreements in which AIME would pay her a $240,000 bonus for 2023, and a $240,000 severance payment in 12 installments of $20,000.

AIME failed to pay Sweeney the bonus and two $20,000 installments earlier this year, but told Sweeney it intended to pay her, according to the initial lawsuit. Sweeney, via an attorney, requested payment, and the trade group countered that it was investigating the agreements.

The organization filed a counterclaim in April in Texas federal court, laying out its case that Sweeney as a director wasn’t entitled to her annual six-figure compensation per AIME’s bylaws. The group questioned how Sweeney’s 2023 bonus was determined, and it argued she negotiated her exit package herself, including insisting that AIME President Marc Summers sign it.

In seeking to void her contract, AIME claims damages of over $900,000, including compensation paid to Sweeney of $240,000 in 2021 and $479,999 in 2022.

Other industry players named in case filings

In its counterclaims, AIME accused Sweeney of improper dealings with other industry groups involving an unspecified amount of money. Each of those parties however were only mentioned briefly and not accused of wrongdoing themselves.

AIME, in a footnote, accused Sweeney of diverting monetary contributions from lender partners away from AIME to the Broker Action Coalition, a group Sweeney co-founded. BAC Chief Advocacy Officer and co-founder Brendan McKay, in response to a National Mortgage News inquiry, said sponsorship discussions as Sweeney transitioned from AIME coincided with the normal sponsorship renewal cycle.

“It is my understanding that they were conducted transparently, with the knowledge of both the sponsors and as well as AIME’s incoming leadership,” McKay wrote Friday. “Any suggestion that contributions were ‘diverted’ is inaccurate.”

McKay continued, stating Sweeney “did the new team a favor by handling one of the toughest parts of running a trade association” in sponsorship renewals.

Between 2022 and 2024, Sweeney also allegedly collected on contracts between AIME and companies in which she had interest, without AIME’s approval. That includes a sponsorship agreement with Brokers are Better, a vendor network group today known as The Mortgage Xchange.

The Mortgage XChange didn’t respond to an immediate request for comment Friday afternoon.

Counsel for Sweeney in an August filing also wrote United Wholesale Mortgage Chief Marketing Officer Sarah DeCiantis negotiated Sweeney’s departure from AIME and reviewed and revised her transition agreement.

A spokesperson for UWM said in a statement Thursday the lender has been a sponsor of AIME since its inception, but did not respond to a follow-up question regarding DeCiantis. AIME in response to a question about UWM also said UWM has no authority over AIME’s board of directors, and had no authority over Sweeney while she was at AIME.

Rocket which was not mentioned in any filings and it did not return a request for comment this week.

The sides failed to reach a resolution in mediation last month, according to case filings. They’ve proposed a case timeline including a 2027 trial date.

AIME was founded in 2018 by Anthony Casa, today president and CEO of Philadelphia-based brokerage UMortgage. The trade group’s latest filing mentioned Casa as tied to the Brokers are Better group; a spokesperson for UMortgage Friday said Casa had no involvement with BAB beyond a historical connection, and could not comment on the Sweeney litigation.