Myrtle Beach real estate agents at war: Lawsuit alleges stolen clients, data and profits
Two South Carolina real estate companies are at war with a third whose agent they’ve accused of stealing clients, profits and private real estate data during secretive, “unauthorized” late-night office visits.
Century 21 Barefoot Realty and its real estate agent Kevin Mills along with Century 21 The Harrelson Group sued Joel Barber and Darcy Varney of eXp Realty last week, alleging that Barber stole data from the two Myrtle Beach-based Century 21 agencies and used it to take clients and, as a result, profits.
The lawsuit primarily details the alleged actions of Barber, who is accused of entering Century 21 The Harrelson Group offices “unauthorized” six times between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. and accessing “password-protected” company computers to steal client data. The legal filings say the companies have proof of Barber making these trips because of videos taken by The Harrelson Group’s Ring Camera System.
To steal the data, legal documents said Barber not only snuck into The Harrelson Group’s building after hours, he also had to get into a locked office belonging to one of the company’s other real estate agents. In a written affidavit, The Harrelson Group president Greg Harrelson said he believed that happened “without a key, perhaps using a credit card to break the lock” on the individual office within the building.
Login records for the laptop the information was stolen from also match up with the hours of Barber’s alleged visits, Harrelson said in the affidavit. To get into the computers, the lawsuit against Barber alleges he “hacked” into them in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Barber had been working on a contract basis with The Harrelson Group, selling and listing approved properties in association with the real estate agency, according to his employment contract that was included in legal filings. The contract also states that after its termination Barber was not to use any private information or materials he gained or learned of during his time with the company. Barber had been working for The Harrelson Group since March 2017.
Barber’s contract was terminated Feb. 7, the same day the lawsuit said he entered Century 21 The Harrelson Group offices for the last time.
According to a Myrtle Beach police report, Barber was found by police on Century 21’s property the morning of Feb. 7 after Mills told police he believed Barber was there to steal information. Barber denied doing so and instead told the officer he was looking for “ideas to better improve his ‘team,’” according to the police report. Afterward, Barber was escorted off the property by the officer and placed on trespass notice.
The lawsuit against Barber states that his goal was to take real estate “prospects and leads assigned to other brokers” for “his own personal benefit” and that of the other defendants, Darcy Varney and eXp Realty, a national real estate agency.
The lawsuit claims Barber not only took the private real estate data, which included listings and clients Century 21 The Harrelson Group was working on, legal documents allege, but he also deleted real estate listings and client records from the company’s system. After stealing and deleting the real estate records, Barber contacted clients belonging to The Harrelson Group and set up listings, allowing him to earn commissions that otherwise would’ve gone to his former employer, legal documents say.
Century 21 Barefoot, which shares a building with The Harrelson Group, said Barber also went into the office of one of its real estate agents without permission and took private real estate records off of a company computer. As with The Harrelson Group, login records show the computer was accessed during hours matching up with Barber’s alleged visits recorded by the Ring Camera System.
In an affidavit, Mills, of Century 21 Barefoot, said Barber emailed “stolen leads” to another competing real estate agent, Ryan Picthall, whom he had allegedly agreed with “to split profits 50/50 commission on any resulting sale.” A copy of an email from Barber to Picthall containing real estate leads was included in Mills’ affidavit. However, the leads themselves were blacked out, so it cannot be verified whether they were the stolen leads that Mills claims.
Picthall, an employee of The Harrelson Group, did not respond to a phone call or email requesting comment. He is not a defendant in the lawsuit and was still listed online as an employee of The Harrelson Group as of Wednesday morning.
Mills also said in his affidavit that Barber “changed or deleted calendar entries” that Mills used to conduct his business as a real estate agent.
After Barber was fired, Harrelson said in his affidavit that he observed Barber listing properties for sale online “using information that could only be obtained from the non-public database” belonging to The Harrelson Group and using photos owned by the company as well. Mills claimed the same happened with his real estate listings.
Century 21 Barefoot, Century 21 The Harrelson Group and Kevin Mills did not respond to phone calls and emails requesting comment. Barber directed questions to his attorney, Greg McCollum.
“This lawsuit is a business dispute,” McCollum said in an email Friday. “We just received the lawsuit and are evaluating it now. This lawsuit is just one side of the story. Mr. Barber will be filing an answer and response soon.”
When asked about whether it was true Barber had gone into the Century 21 offices late at night and why, McCollum said in email, “All agents had access to the business at any time.”
The lawsuit against Barber, however, states that “Barber, at all times, knew or should have known that he did not have authorization to access or enter the office building in the middle of the night, or very early hours of the morning.”
Century 21 The Harrelson Group, Century 21 Barefoot and Mills requested a temporary injunction against Barber, Varney and eXp Realty to prevent them from profiting off of the allegedly stolen real estate information.
The three plaintiffs have also requested monetary damages for a host of accusations against Barber and the other defendants, including deceptive trade practices, the stolen clients, computer hacking and trespassing.
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 10:53 AM.
