$250 million sexual lawsuit against American Apparel CEO Dov Charney

Image by dovcharney via Flickr

Yet another sexual harassment lawsuit has been filed against Dov Charney, American Apparel CEO, famous for masturbating in front of a reporter among other things. This one is a humdinger. He is being sued for $250 million by a former employee who claims she was forced to perform sexual acts for Charney on her 18th birthday. The near-bankrupt company is reported to be worth $80 million.


According to her lawsuit, Dov answered the door in his underwear and "forced her to her knees so she could pleasure him. Then he dragged her to the bedroom, threw her on the bed, got on top of her and forced her to perform another act of fellatio, nearly suffocating her in the process," the suit alleges.
She was then essentially "held prisoner" in the apartment for several hours during which time he forced her to perform additional sexual acts, according to the lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

 American Apparel has shot back with this press release:

"We have been informed today that Irene Morales, a former employee of American Apparel who left the company without complaint and resigned with a letter of gratitude regarding her positive experience at the company, has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit in New York against the company. Upon her resignation, Ms. Morales acknowledged in writing that she had no pending claims against the company and signed a severance agreement which included a full release of claims and an agreement to submit any future claims to confidential binding arbitration. All American Apparel's employees are subject to the same confidential arbitration agreement signed by Ms. Morales in order to protect the privacy interests of employees and former employees, and to prevent predatory plaintiffs and their attorneys from attempting to use the media to extort the company. Such an arbitration process was initiated by the company against Ms. Morales several weeks ago. The company intends to file a formal complaint with the NY state bar seeking disciplinary action against Ms. Morales' lawyers who we believe are engaged in an illegal conspiracy to extort money from American Apparel. We are very confident that Ms. Morales' claims will be promptly referred by the court to confidential binding arbitration where her claims and the company's counter-claims will be resolved, we believe fully in favor of the company."