The head of the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts has been sued for defamation after allegedly making crude remarks about the wife of a Quicken Loans executive, the news site HousingWire reported Sunday.

In a lawsuit, Theresa Niemiec, wife of Quicken Loans Executive Vice President Austin Niemiec, said AIME Chairman Anthony Casa made inappropriate remarks portraying her as promiscuous in text messages and videos sent to her husband and others in the mortgage industry. At least one video was uploaded to YouTube and was later removed, although HousingWire said it has not seen the video.

Theresa Niemiec is seeking financial reparations as well as full retractions from Casa for each of his alleged comments.

AIME is a Clarkston, Mich.-based association formed in 2017 by Casa to represent independent mortgage brokers. It currently has more than 40,000 members, according to its website, and reported revenue of $1.4 million in 2018 tax documents.

In a statement, Casa acknowledged that during a "heated conversation," he sent "private communications that I understand were inappropriate and hurtful to select parties who previously engaged with me in an equally unprofessional manner."

"I do regret sending these messages and apologize to those hurt by my actions," Casa continued. "I will own that I let my emotions get the best of me. One of the toughest challenges of leadership is admitting mistakes but more importantly learning and growing from them. What makes me sad is that what I said does not reflect my values and I will address that directly with my team and ensure that all of our members know that my statements do not reflect the values of this association."

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