Dov Charney

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Dov Charney : biography

31 January 1969 –

In 2004, he was named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year and Apparel Magazine’s Man of the Year. In 2012, ABC News called Charney “one of the most controversial—and hyperactive—entrepreneurs in the country.

Charney is also an investor in the The Cardinal, a restaurant in New York City.

Ethical Views

In an interview with Vice.tv, Charney spoke out against the poor treatment of fashion workers in developing countries and refers to the practices as "slave labor" and "death trap manufacturing." Charney proposed a "Global Garment Workers Minimum Wage" as well discussed in detail many of the inner workings of the modern Fast fashion industry practices that creates dangerous factory conditions and disasters like the 2013 Savar building collapse on the 13 May which had the death toll of 1,127 and 2,500 injured people who were rescued from the building alive.

Controversy

Charney has been the subject of several sexual harassment lawsuits, at least five since the mid-2000s, that are either still pending or have settled or been dismissed. Through early 2010, none of the accusations had been proven. Quote: "Charney has been involved in several highly publicised sexual harassment suits brought by former employees, none of which were proven.” Some cases remain pending, but the remaining were dismissed, remanded to private arbitration, or “thrown out”. HuffingtonPost.com 03/22/2012 5:20 pm Quote: "Charney has been involved in several highly publicised sexual harassment suits brought by former employees."

Charney maintained his innocence in all the lawsuits, telling CNBC that “allegations that I acted improperly at any time are completely a fiction." CNBC.com Jane Wells 4/10/12 “The company is also trying to recover from a litany of lawsuits against Charney, including a sex slave lawsuit that was thrown out last month” The company and independent media outlets have publicly accused lawyers in the lawsuits against American Apparel of extortion and of "shaking the company down." HollywoodInterrupted.com Dec. 2008 On the eve of trial in one case, the plaintiff confessed that she had not been subjected to sexual harassment and agreed to go to an arbitration hearing aimed at clearing Charney’s name. However, the plaintiff failed to show up to the hearing and a ruling was unable to be reached. As a result, the $1.3 million settlement was dissolved and the matter reemerged as a negative media controversy for Charney. The company was later sued by four ex-models for sexual harassment, including one separately named plaintiff who sued the company for $250 million. The latter lawsuits were subject to much controversy when unsolicited nude photographs, consensual sexual text messages and requests for money surfaced. Charney was accused of being responsible for these leaks in a later lawsuit.

In 2004, Claudine Ko of Jane magazine Archived at published an essay narrating multiple sexual exchanges that occurred between them while spending time with Charney. The article said that Charney consistently propositioned his employees. Charney admitted to using the word "sluts" in front of employees, in a deposition on another sexual harassment case, and denied that "slut" was a derogatory term.Claudine Ko, "Meet Your New Boss," Jane Magazine, June/July 2004 http://www.claudineko.com/storiesamericanapparel.html The article’s publication brought extensive press to the company and Charney, who later responded that he believed that the acts had been done consensually, in private and outside the article’s bounds."The company calls it "a social situation which…unfortunately was exploited in order to sell magazines." CNBC. Margaret Brennan. February 28, 2008."I’ve never done anything sexual that wasn’t consensual", Charney says. The reporter, Claudine Ko, confirmed his take on events to BusinessWeek." "Within the context of a flirtatious conversation about sexuality and the pleasure Charney derives from masturbation with a willing partner, he decided to demonstrate for Ko, and it became a repeated motif in their later encounters. The article left a lasting impression of him as a boss who can’t keep it in his pants", The New York Times "I was a younger man" he says, wearily. "The lines were blurred between paramour and reporter." The reporter has said that her tape recorder or notebook was in full view at all times and that the relationship was professional."