Estée Lauder Sues Deciem, Seeks To Remove Founder After 'erratic' Behaviour

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (EL) filed a lawsuit against popular skin-care company Deciem and its founder after he announced in a video on Instagram that he was temporarily shutting down all of its stores because of what he described as "major criminal activity.", according to the reports.

Estée Lauder, which owns a minority stake in Toronto-based Deciem, is requesting that founder Brandon Truaxe be removed as co-chief executive and that the other chief, Nicola Kilner, serve as sole chief Executive officer on an interim basis, the reports said citing the suit filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. In the suit, Estée Lauder also asks for a judge to remove Truaxe from the board of directors and bar him from managing Deciem's operations and from modifying, deleting or disabling online posts related to the company.

Truaxe earlier this week said in a video on Deciem's Instagram that the company will "shut down all operations until further notice," adding that "almost everyone" at the company has been involved in a major criminal activity including financial crimes. He didn't elaborate, but went on to list various celebrities, executives and investors in the post without explaining their relevance. By Wednesday, Truaxe appeared to have followed through on his threat. Deciem's website displayed only a bright red screen, and the company's roughly 30 stores in Canada, the U.S., the Netherlands, U.K., Australia and South Korea were shut.(DPA)