The jewelry designer accuses the lawyer for celebrity in the “fraud” trial on unpaid costs

When the jewelry company Alex and Ani sought to redefine its range of products in 2023, the leaders turned to the designer based in Los Angeles Pamela Love.

With its own eponymous brand, Love had worked with J. Crew, Shinola and Top Shop. At Alex and Ani, she would be “creative director” for about $ 21,000 per month, plus the royalties.

Now LOVE has brought the owners of Alex and Ani to justice, saying that the company sells its creations but owes it up to $ 6 million in fees and other costs, as well as more than $ 200,000 in unpaid consulting costs.

In a trial filed Wednesday in New York, Love and its lawyers seek to perceive unpaid money while alleging that the owners of the jewelry brand – including a company owned by the lawyer of the celebrity Mark Geragos – engaged in a “shell game” and orchestrated “a colliste foreclosure” to dodge paid love and other creditors.

The costume appoints the two owners of the jewelry company, The Bathing Club LLC, which lightens is controlled by Geragos, and LC A & A Holdings, which lightens is controlled by the financier Lyndon Lea through the capital of Lion Fund of Investment Capital.

“After Pamela Love began arbitration against Alex and Ani to recover advice costs and unpaid sales fees, …. Alex and the Ultimate owners of Alex, Lyndon Lea and Mark Geragos, executed a conspiracy of several years to make Alex and Ani Judget Proof,” said the continuation of Love.

Neither geragos nor lea immediately responded to allegations or requests for comments.

The trial comes while Geragos has exploded for a wider celebrity by representing Lyle and Erik Menendez, and he highlights the broader commercial enterprises of the lawyer, which include the property of Los Angeles magazine, restaurants, hotels in California and New York, and minority participation in Alex and Ani. The jewelry company has experienced difficulties in recent years, including bankruptcy in 2021.

After starting with Alex and Ani in 2023, Love initially received payment but did not obtain it for its last 10 months. She designed jewelry for Alex and Ani who were on sale last summer, according to the costume. Under the three -year agreement, Love was eligible at up to $ 2 million a year in royalties on the products it has designed or “contributed to another creative way”, but it has never received such payments or sales reports which would allow it to determine the fees, according to the trial.

In the spring of 2024, she launched arbitration to collect unpaid funds.

“Alex and Ani did not deny that this must like to love substantial costs under the agreement,” said the prosecution. A former lawyer for the company “admitted” during the arbitration that Alex and Ani “tried to find a way to pay for Pamela his money”.

The referee, the former judge of the Superior Court of the Superior, Katherine Chilton, reassured herself with love and said that it was “undisputed” that she had not been paid for 10 months. In a decision in December, Chilton forced Alex and Ani LLC to display as a security of $ 208,333.40 for consultation work, as well as $ 12,000 in costs.

Chilton noted that the “only justification” of the company so as not to pay for love was its poor financial situation and “apparently, because the assets were transferred to a third party”.

The Love costume also alleys an effort of several years to move assets to make them difficult to collect creditors like love.

Among these stages: in February 2023, the firm linked to Geragos, the Bathing Club, recorded a safety for all the active Alex and Ani, according to the costume. In 2024, shortly after Love launched its arbitration, Lea, which holds 65% of the jewelry company, also awarded a privilege on all the assets of the company to the Bathing Club.

“The transfer was from the initiate to the initiate,” said the trial. “With two privileges of initiates on the active ingredients of Alex and Ani and no defense to the statements of Pamela Love … Geragos made that the Bath club and Alex and Ani are performing a strict foreclosure on the active ingredients of Alex and Ani on July 24, 2024.”

The pursuit alleys that foreclosure “was part of an imposture to defraud the creditors” and did not disrupt commercial operations.

“The alleged seizure was only named,” said the trial. “The employees of Alex and Ani were” licensed “and” rehiring “on the same day.”

LOVE’s costume throws foreclosure as part of an “insolvency defense” that Geragos tried while also being a lawyer of Alex and Ani in the arbitration. In a September email, Geragos indicated that a member of the board of directors “will end up at the entity” and that the CEO of the company, Prita Kumar, had “not worked for Alex and Ani since July, when the lender was seized”.

During the arbitration, the independent member of the Board of Directors Larry Meyer declared under the penalty of perjury that he “managed the ordered closure of the company”.

According to the costume, however, the online activities of Alex and Ani continued and, in the fall, the director of Love was able to buy a ring which was designed on the website of Alex and Ani.

“Pamela Love did not receive a fee payment for this sale,” noted the trial.

And earlier this year, Kumar, which Geragos had indicated was no longer with the company, posted on LinkedIn that Alex and Ani were “in tears” and sought to hire. One of the posts, she wrote, was for a “leader … who can generate income for our millions of detained customers”.

LOVE’s costume lightens that the maneuvers were planned well in advance. As proof, LOVE told a conversation with the leader of the creation of Alex and Ani, who told the love that she was “part of a” plan of Go-Avant “.

“” You would be transferred to another company, and we would all be paid by (Geragos “),” said the director of creation, according to Love, according to the trial.