Guess pays up to $30 million to settle allegations that its cofounder treated models like his ‘personal harem’

The board members agreed to an accord that requires $22 million to be paid to settle a pension fund’s lawsuit alleging they allowed Marciano to deal with the corporate’s fashions “as his private harem” and failed to watch the millionaire dressmaker, in keeping with courtroom filings. Guess? is suing its insurers for the remaining $8 million, in keeping with Delaware Chancery Courtroom filings. 

Administrators mentioned Friday within the filings that they agreed to pay the cash –- slated to return into the corporate’s coffers slightly than to the pension fund — “to eradicate the burden, expense, and uncertainties inherent in additional litigation.” Board members will not be admitting any wrongdoing beneath the deal. 

The allegations in opposition to Marciano surfaced because the #metoo motion was gaining momentum, as a wave of girls publicly accused high-powered executives on Wall Road and in Hollywood of sexual improprieties, resulting in ousters and a few felony convictions. 

Fabrice Benarouche, a Guess? spokesperson in Los Angeles, didn’t instantly return a name for remark Friday on the settlement. 

The Employees Retirement System of Rhode Island, a Guess? shareholder, sued administrators in 2022 after a string of allegations in opposition to Marciano arose involving inappropriate sexual habits with fashions employed to symbolize the blue-jeans maker. In 2018, Upton went on Twitter — now referred to as X — to accuse Marciano of groping and forcibly kissing her years earlier, beginning when she was an adolescent.

Different fashions quickly echoed Upton’s claims, prompting Guess? administrators to launch an inner probe, in keeping with courtroom filings. However administrators didn’t take the investigation severely, failing to interview a number of accusers and producing a “shockingly temporary” report that downplayed the allegations, in keeping with the fund’s swimsuit. 

After Marciano stepped down as CEO in 2015, the board named him chief artistic officer, leaving him able he might use to “actually power himself on one mannequin after one other,” the fund alleged within the swimsuit.

As a part of the settlement, Guess? administrators should implement modifications to the corporate’s corporate-governance insurance policies to raised tackle sexual-harassment allegations, in keeping with the filings. The $22 million is slated to be paid inside 10 days of approval of the settlement by Delaware Chancery Choose Lori Will, in keeping with the submitting.

In the meantime, Guess? co-founder Maurice Marciano — Paul’s brother — introduced Friday he was stepping down from the corporate’s board. In courtroom filings, the corporate acknowledged the fund’s swimsuit performed a job in Maurice Marciano’s determination to depart the board. 

It’s not the primary settlement generated by the sexual-harassment allegations in opposition to Paul Marciano. In 2022, Guess? agreed to pay $1 million to resolve lawsuits filed by two unidentifed fashions who accused the style designer of abusing them.