Douglas Elliman Hits Ryan Serhant With Cease-and-Desist

Douglas Elliman is setting the record straight regarding the company’s culture and its former leader, Howard Lorber.

The firm hit back at Ryan Serhant this week, issuing a cease-and-desist letter to the star broker and brokerage founder who made a veiled reference to longtime Elliman chairman, Howard Lorber.

The letter, viewed by The Real Deal, comes after Serhant was recorded onstage describing a meeting with a brokerage head that led him to reject an offer to work for the firm. Serhant didn’t name the firm or executive, but appeared to be describing Douglas Elliman’s former CEO and chairman, Howard Lorber, who stepped down from the firm in 2024 after more than 20 years.

“There used to be a place you would go to, but the CEO of that company made all his money selling cigarettes, predominantly to kids in the South, and no one else cared,” Serhant told the crowd at his annual Sell It event held in late September, according to a video posted to Instagram after the event, which has since been deleted.

The comment appeared to reference Lorber’s stake in tobacco giant Liggett Group, which admitted in a 1997 settlement that tobacco giants targeted teenagers in their advertising.

Serhant then described Lorber’s office, formerly located on the 52nd floor of 712 Fifth Avenue, where he said the executive “had a gun…which I thought was nuts.”

“I don’t think I can do this. I don’t think I can work for you,” Serhant said at the event.

But Serhant’s recounting of the meeting with Lorber was wrong, and amounted to “a public attack on a competitor,” Elliman said in the letter.

“Contrary to the impression you created, you were not being recruited by Douglas Elliman, nor were you presented with an opportunity to join the company that you then declined,” general counsel Deva Roberts wrote. “Rather, you initiated the meeting with Douglas Elliman’s CEO to present a business proposal.”

“Your characterization of the meeting, and the suggestion that you chose not to affiliate with

Douglas Elliman because of the statements and events you describe, is inaccurate and misleading,” the letter says.

“You are free to compete with Douglas Elliman. You are not free to invent or disseminate

false facts to damage its reputation or business.”

Serhant declined The Real Deal’s request for comment on the cease-and-desist.

Elliman’s culture has come under close scrutiny in recent years, after The Real Deal first reported on lawsuits against Oren Alexander, a former star broker and self-described mentee of Lorber, by two women alleging they were drugged and raped by Alexander. Alexander and his two brothers were convicted on 10 counts of sex trafficking after a five-week trial earlier this year.

Lorber himself was drawn into the brokerage’s harsh spotlight in the months before his exit through claims he knew of at least one attack by the brothers on a fellow Elliman agent. It was later reported that he admitted in an internal inquiry to having intimate relationships with two of the company’s brokers.

Elliman initially said Lorber’s sudden exit was not a result of any violation or conflict with the company, but The Wall Street Journal reported days after Lorber’s departure that the board had urged him to retire after an investigation sparked by concerns over the company’s culture and its financial troubles.

Elliman has previously denied any knowledge of allegations against the Alexanders and Lorber’s possible knowledge of any allegations.