Better.com’s new interim chief executive flew to the South of France for vacation during his first full week on the job — even as the mortgage lender’s founder was busy orchestrating a coup to unseat him, The Post has learned.
Ousted founder Vishal Garg, who made headlines in 2021 when he fired 900 workers on a Zoom call, has lined up investors representing 52% of the embattled company’s voting shares in a bid to boot interim CEO Daniel Lewis and five board members, according to well-placed sources.
Lewis had told numerous people inside the company that he planned to spend the week in the South of France, sources said.
One source said Lewis subsequently appeared on a Zoom call from what looked like a vacation setting in a different time zone. His planned trip had been openly discussed inside Better and was not a secret, sources said.
The getaway comes amid an escalating battle for control of Better, with dissident shareholders already sending demands to the company’s lawyers and preparing to forcibly remove Lewis and the directors through a shareholder vote if they refuse to resign, according to sources.
The insurgent group has retained powerhouse law firm Quinn Emanuel, which has compiled shareholder consents representing the voting bloc, the sources said.
The process of forcing a shareholder vote could take as little as 10 days — although other avenues could stretch the showdown to 35 days, according to sources familiar with the plans.
The revolt comes less than two weeks after Better abruptly dumped Garg as CEO and replaced him with Lewis, an investor who had joined the company’s board only about a week earlier, according to sources.
Lewis also pleaded guilty last year to a 2022 drunken-driving charge in East Hampton, according to a background investigation obtained by The Post that cited public court records.
He received a conditional discharge, was ordered to use an ignition-interlock device for a year, had his license revoked for six months and was fined $1,000.
Garg was informed around 1 p.m. on Aug. 3 that he was being fired, and his company email was shut off roughly 30 minutes later while Better shares were still trading, sources said.
He was given no specific rationale beyond being told the board believed Lewis could do a better job, according to the sources.
Better subsequently offered Garg a vice-chair position with a hefty compensation package, sources said.
The company presented a sharply different account in a press release on Friday, saying every director other than Garg had unanimously voted to terminate him following “a series of decisions and actions that raised serious concerns regarding his judgment, temperament and credibility.”
That statement marked a dramatic shift from Better’s Aug. 3 announcement, which said Garg and the board had “mutually agreed” that he would transition out of the top job.
The board also blamed Garg for delaying Better’s quarterly filing, saying his refusal to timely execute required representation letters was the “sole cause” of the delay.
Sources close to the situation disputed that account, saying Garg repeatedly sought a final version of the 42-page filing and did not receive it until 5:37 p.m. on the day it was due — seven minutes after the filing deadline.
Garg reviewed the document that evening and told the company he was prepared to sign it, the sources said.
The board on Friday also accused Garg of presiding over more than $1.5 billion in cumulative net losses since 2022 and a stock-price decline of more than 90%.
Sources did not dispute the losses but argued that the bulk of them were incurred earlier in the mortgage downturn and that Better has since dramatically improved its financial performance.
Better reported second-quarter revenue of $54.7 million and a net loss of $30.6 million.
The board additionally said it had reviewed communications that, according to its lawyers, showed Garg’s involvement in conduct that “may constitute violations of US securities laws.”
Sources close to Garg denied any securities-law violations and said neither Garg nor his attorneys had been shown the communications referenced by the board.
Meanwhile, the turmoil has spread beyond the CEO suite.
Better co-founder and chief legal officer Nicholas Calamari was placed on administrative leave Sunday night and told that his position would be made redundant and terminated, according to sources familiar with the situation.
His company email access was cut off, and he was instructed not to report to the office or represent Better, the sources said.
The boardroom war follows years of upheaval at Better, which slashed its workforce after the pandemic-era mortgage boom evaporated as interest rates surged.
Garg drew widespread criticism in December 2021 after firing roughly 900 employees during a Zoom call.
He subsequently apologized for the way the layoffs were handled and temporarily stepped away from the company before returning as CEO.
Better went public through its long-delayed merger with Aurora Acquisition Corp. in August 2023.
The company’s board is now urging shareholders not to act while Garg’s allies are preparing to use their claimed voting majority to overhaul its leadership.
If Lewis and the directors refuse to step down, the dissident shareholders intend to proceed with their removal, sources said.