Models file lawsuits against Wilhelmina agency

At least two Wilhelmina models have taken their gripes with the famed agency to the courts.

Alfredo Nemer and Malik Lindo-Ireland have filed separate lawsuits against the agency, claiming Wilhelmina induced them to sign a new three-year management agreement under false pretenses — including concealing the imminent termination of their longtime agents, Matt Trust and Gene Kogan, according to their lawsuits.

“The only senior agent remaining in the division, Jessica Rosenberg, subsequently resigned, leaving Defendant’s men’s division largely in the hands of junior staff,” says Lindo-Ireland’s lawsuit, which further accuses the agency of “mishandling key opportunities” that ultimately cost him gigs.

Nemer and Lindo-Ireland’s lawsuits come on the heels of insiders revealing to Page Six that there was a “bloodbath” at Wilhelmina with top execs, including the model’s agents, fleeing.

“It’s like they’re back at square one. They’ve decimated their entire men’s team,” a source told us this month in reference to the leadership of director Cory Bautista and the firm’s CFO/COO Guarav Pahwa.

Sources told us at the time that several models were seeking to get out of their contracts due to the changes.

In Nemer and Lindo-Ireland’s case, they signed their agreements believing Kogan and Trust would remain their agents, their court papers allege.

“In reality, [Wilhelmina] knew it was about to terminate both Trust and Kogan, and deliberately concealed that fact, knowing that [Nemer] would not have signed the 2025 Agreement and would have left [Wilhelmina] with them, had he known the truth,” Nemer’s lawsuit states.

Insiders tell Page Six that more models are expected to file similar suits. One source familiar with the situation blasted Pahwa as “an accountant with no understanding of the fashion business.”

But Wilhelmina’s lawyer Matthew Heerde dismissed the lawsuits as “completely meritless and just a cheap trick by a competing modeling agency who wants to take models away from Wilhelmina.”

“The issues are unrelated to the Fashion Workers Act, which Wilhelmina fully supports and is fully compliant with. We have no doubt the court will fully enforce the contracts that Mr. Lindo-Ireland and Mr. Nemer signed with Wilhelmina,” he said.

Pahwa previously told us, “While we can’t comment on specific model contracts or former personnel speculation, we remain focused on strengthening all divisions and ensuring continued success for our talent and partners.”