You know who probably doesn’t need to worry about getting laid off anytime soon? Members of American Apparel’s legal team. Because enumerating their lawsuits as of late is not unlike counting the number of Christmas cookies and frosted nuts we ate last week. The latest suit involves American Apparel’s ex–chief of European operations Bernhard-Axel Ingo Brake. He alleges he was fired after he complained about the company’s employment practices in Europe. He also claims Dov Charney verbally promised him more than $1 million in bonuses and commissions, which have yet to reach his bank account.
Brake also says Charney paid employees under the table to evade taxes and let the women employees he liked best (you knew they’d come up eventually) mishandle company funds and waste resources — far from the best interests of American Apparel’s shareholders. Not to be outdone, American Apparel has filed a lawsuit of their own against Brake in German court. They say he was fired for embezzling money from the company and also allege that he hired his mistress for a high-level position in Switzerland, the duties of which went unfulfilled. Additionally, they claim Brake went against the company’s nepotism rules by hiring his daughter to work in a store and then paid her random bonuses. Eh, we’d say the worst crime in all that would be putting any woman in a position in which she might have to interact with Dov Charney. Just typing that feels like cause for a shower.
