Damon Dash isn’t going down without a fight. Days following reports that his ex-wife, Rachel Roy was awarded sole custody of their two daughters, 15-year-old Ava, and Tallulah, 6, the hip-hop mogul filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the fashion designer.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder filed a summons in New York Supreme Court against Roy for allegedly grossly mismanaging their fashion business, Royale Etenia. Per Dash’s suit, Roy allegedly breached fiduciary duties, breached a contract and committed conversion arising from her handling of Royale Etenia, a fashion company the former duo launched shortly after they wed in 2005. The company later closed shop in 2009. Since then, Roy’s clothing line has been in major retailers, including Macy’s and worn by Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian and Tyra Banks.
The summons continued to detail a larger complaint, claiming that Roy mismanaged the business, violated certain provisions of the company’s operating agreement and interfered with cash pay outs to Dash. Dash claims he is due $2.5 million in asserted damage in addition to a second $2.5 million suit filed against another party, Topson Downs of California, accused of also grossly mismanaging business affairs related to an intellectual property company associated with Roy.
Although Dash didn’t go into detail regarding Roy’s alleged malfeasance of the fashion brand, last year, Roy sued the Jones Apparel Group for violating a manufacturing and distribution deal. In the claim, “Jones was accused of entering the deal under false pretenses and attempting to take control of Roy’s work. The lawsuit further accused Jones of attempting to sell Roy’s brands and trademarks to a third party after being acquired by a private equity firm for more than $2 billion. Last May, she was granted a preliminary injunction that prevented Jones from selling her trademarks. In July, the parties agreed to discontinue the action with prejudice — the typical sign of a settlement,” reports THR.
Seems Dash is looking for a way to cause Roy grief. If Roy was really mismanaging the business, why wasn’t the matter addressed years ago?
