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Digital Risk top executives resign amid more layoffs [Orlando Sentinel](Orlando Sentinel (FL) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sept. 25--Mortgage technology company Digital Risk LLC's top executive Peter Kassabov is leaving the Maitland-based company he co-founded nine years ago as it wrestles with an unexpected business downturn, officials confirmed Thursday. Also exiting is Kassabov's longtime business partner and Digital Risk president Alex Santos. Both are resigning from the company effective Dec. 1. Digital Risk confirmed the moves only days after handing out a new round of pink slips. More than 30 workers at its Lake Mary unit received layoff notices on Monday, according to documents filed with the state. Their jobs will end effective Nov. 19. Kassabov and Santos, both veteran Central Florida tech entrepreneurs, are leaving Digital Risk just short of two years after the company was acquired by Mphasis Inc. of India for $175 million. Along with other investors -- including venture capital firms -- they are in line to get an additional $27 million subject to meeting certain financial targets since the acquisition. The senior managers "decided to leave after fulfilling their obligation to assure the smooth integration with parent company Mphasis," spokeswoman Brandie Young said in an email. "After an acquisition, top executives departing the companies they founded is a usual and expected occurrence." Kassabov, 48, is retiring and Santos, 41, is expected to pursue new entrepreneurial ventures, Young said. Digital Risk's latest layoffs come nearly six months after it laid off about 750 workers statewide -- more than 500 of them in Maitland and Lake Mary. Later, the company brought back more than 500 workers, many of them on a temporary contract basis as part of cost-control measures. The company is being audited by Seminole County officials to determine whether it is complying with a job-creation incentive agreement that would pay Digital Risk up to $600,000 for creating 600 full-time jobs in its Lake Mary expansion. The company has said it is still on track to create all 1,000 full-time jobs it promised statewide as part of a series of job-creation economic incentive agreements. Since 2009, it has been approved to get more than $4 million from the state and Orange, Seminole, Palm Beach and Duval counties. Its peak employment statewide has reached about 1,600 -- more than half in Maitland and Lake Mary. Still, the company has had a significant dropoff in its mortgage forensics, fraud detection and risk-analysis business -- a downturn that has affected all mortgage risk-analysis companies as many lenders now perform much of that work in-house. The company lost a major client -- J.P. Morgan Chase -- earlier this year and some other clients have reduced their reliance on Digital Risk for risk-analysis. The company has refocused on mortgage originations, loan closings and quality control work. Digital Risk expects work force "fluctuations to occur in response to the volatile mortgage market," spokeswoman Young said. "One would note similar actions in other mortgage or banking businesses." Despite the client losses, Digital Risk says it has continued to generate higher revenues during the downturn. The company reported annual sales of $127 million in 2012 -- the most recent data available. That has increased 25 percent since the company was acquired by Mphasis Inc. in December of 2012, according to Young. [email protected] or 407-420-5256. ___ (c)2014 The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.) Visit The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.) at www.OrlandoSentinel.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |