3 Ex-Workers Sue DiTech in Overtime-Pay Dispute

Three former employees of DiTech Funding Corp. on Tuesday sued the Costa Mesa mortgage lender and its parent company, alleging they were forced to work overtime without pay.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, seeks back pay for all loan agents who worked in DiTech’s office for the last four years.

The suit, which also names DiTech parent GMAC Mortgage Corp., requests one hour of pay for each day employees failed to receive adequate meal breaks. The suit does not specify the amount of damages sought.

Neither DiTech nor GMAC officials could be reached for comment Tuesday.

The three plaintiffs are Gene Acosta, Jeffrey Ellmore and Emad Salman. Their employment at DiTech ranged from nine months to 28 months.

DiTech, a 6-year-old company that made $4.3 billion in loans in 1999, has been hit with a series of legal troubles in the last year. Five executives left the company’s Internet mortgage seller DiTech.com after three top managers were indicted in May on federal extortion charges.

In August, DiTech founder J. Paul Reddam, one of those who left, alleged in a lawsuit that GMAC failed to pay $200 million it owed him after agreeing to acquire the company in March 1999.