[AnemicOak]

In Counterclaim, B&N Says Former CEO 'Sabotaged' Sale; Sexually Harassed Multiple Women

In a legal filing, Barnes & Noble hit back at Demos Parneros, claiming the recently fired CEO actively sabotaged a potential sale of the company earlier this year, bullied fellow executives, and sexually harassed multiple women at the company. And raising the legal stakes, lawyers for B&N have filed a counterclaim, asking the court to order Parneros to pay damages for his alleged breach of fiduciary duties, and seeking to potentially claw back more than $1 million paid to Parneros “during the period of his disloyal conduct.”

The filing comes in response to Parneros’s bombshell breach of contract and defamation lawsuit, filed August 28, which alleges that B&N founder Len Riggio, irate over the collapse of a sale this summer to an unnamed book retailer, engineered Parneros’ firing so he could retake control of the company. In his suit, Parneros acknowledges that an unnamed book retailer withdrew a bid in June after completing due diligence, but claims “there was no suggestion that the failure of the deal was in any respect Parneros's fault.”

In a stunning claim, however, B&N lawyers now allege that Parneros didn’t just botch the sale of the company this past summer, but actively derailed it, "apparently in an effort to preserve his position as CEO." The filing portrays a reluctant, even defiant Parneros, interfering with and even undermining a months-long due diligence process, with things coming to a head at a disastrous June 18 meeting, which the purchaser had called in part to get a handle on a recent sales decline at B&N.

Full article...
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...ple-women.html