Mauricio Umansky — founder of The Agency and ex-husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards — is at the center of a new financial scandal that could shake up the entire real estate empire he has built over the past decade. According to an anonymous lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Umansky is accused of intentionally falsifying mortgage documents, forging signatures, and providing false information to expedite the disbursement of tens of millions of dollars in loans for a Holmby Hills real estate deal in 2020.
The plaintiff, who is said to be an unnamed former investment partner who was directly involved in the deal, claims that Umansky used a series of “shady” tactics to manipulate the financial underwriting system, including in-house property price increases, personal relationships with lenders, and concealing the true financial risks. The allegation is that the entire deal was “played out like a script,” with the goal of using the loan as leverage to buy quickly, flip quickly, and make a personal profit without sharing it with the original investors.
As soon as the news leaked, a series of Bravo fans and real estate insiders began digging up a series of other suspicious details from Mauricio’s past – including a 2017 scandal involving a Malibu mansion that was sold for less than its true value. At the time, Umansky was also sued for allegedly “colluding with insiders” to profit from the multimillion-dollar difference, and the end result was a quiet out-of-court settlement with no public terms.
A source close to Bravo’s legal team revealed that the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills production company had been “always informed internally about potential legal trouble” for Umansky, but deliberately avoided airing the details to protect the Kyle–Mauricio family’s image. Meanwhile, many have questioned whether Kyle Richards – who has served as brand ambassador alongside her husband – was truly unaware of what was going on behind the scenes?
An initial response from Umansky’s legal representatives was that the lawsuit was “baseless and personally motivated,” asserting that their client “has always followed due process and has never committed any fraudulent acts.” However, in a bizarre move, shortly after the lawsuit was made public, The Agency quietly removed posts related to the 2020 deal from its official website and Instagram – further fueling suspicion.
The scandal broke out at a time when Umansky was pushing his personal television career with Netflix's Buying Beverly Hills, putting his "model businessman" image at risk of collapsing. Meanwhile, Bravo is reportedly holding internal meetings to assess the impact of the lawsuit on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills franchise - especially when viewers are expecting a "less scripted, more real" season.
The lawsuit has yet to be resolved, but the public has raised the question: how many million-dollar deals of The Agency have been made in the "Umansky model" that have never been exposed? Is this just the tip of the iceberg? And how long will Kyle Richards - who once declared "we have nothing to hide" - keep silent?
Mauricio can continue to deny, but once the public and the media catch wind of the truth, the documents he thought he could bury forever… may be the very thing that topples the empire he spent his life building.
