Reuters reports that the previous billionaire owners of Brooks Brothers are being sued for driving Brooks Brothers into the ground rather than selling it in order to avoid paying millions of dollars to one of their investors.
The investor, Tal Apparel, claims Claudio Del Vecchio and his son Mateo pressured Tal Apparel to invest $100 million and that Tal would be made whole if they later sold Brooks Brothers for less than $652 million.
Tal Apparel also states that Del Vecchio lined up several bids for Brooks Brothers but did not pursue any of them because then they would have to owe Tal Apparel money. Instead, Del Vecchio filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy making Tal’s investment worthless.
In this lawsuit, Tal Apparel is asking for $100 million in damages. According to Forbes, the Del Vecchio family is worth $27.9 billion.