After a tumultuous few weeks at Better Home & Finance Holding Co., the company is continuing to shake up its leadership team after replacing founder and former CEO Vishal Garg with board member Daniel Lewis.
On Aug. 14, the New York Post reported that Better co-founder and chief legal officer Nicholas Calamari was placed on administrative leave. A source close to Calamari confirmed the report to HousingWire.
It’s unclear when Calamari was placed on leave and who will replace him. According to his LinkedIn profile, he’s been with Better since April 2014.
The confirmation of Calamari’s leave comes just one day after Better filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accusing Garg of violating U.S. securities laws as part of what the board described as an “illegal, scorched-earth campaign” to oust directors and return himself to the CEO position.
“Within days of his removal, Garg assembled a group of shareholders to act together to carry out his self-serving agenda of removing the majority of the duly constituted Board, replacing those directors with hand-picked successors, and reinstalling him as CEO,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit follows Better’s Aug. 3 announcement that Lewis would replace Garg as interim CEO. Better said Garg had mutually agreed with the board to step down and would remain on the board to help with the transition.
But on Aug. 13, Garg said he was seeking to regain control of the company after claiming that shareholders representing a majority of voting power backed him. Garg retained the services of attorney Alex Spiro.
Better’s board has opposed Garg’s effort, pointing to more than $1.5 billion in net losses since 2022 and a stock price decline of more than 90% during his tenure.
