Anne Lu – Celebrity News Service Contributor
New York, NY, United States (AHN Entertainment) – Marc Jacobs International president Robert Duffy has been sued by a former employee for allegedly creating a “hostile and discriminatory environment” at the fashion company. Duffy, designer Marc Jacobs’ longtime business partner, allegedly required a store employee to perform pole dancing and other demeaning actions.
The suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court by former Chief Operating Officer Patrice Lataillade, claims Duffy “uses company funds for personal expenses and does not censor what he does or says.”
He also created a “discriminatory environment,” including “displaying gay pornography in the office and requiring employees to look at it; his production and dissemination of a book which included photos of MJI staff in sexual positions or nude; [and] his requirement that an MJI store employee perform a pole dance for him.”
According to the suit, via the New York Post, Lataillade stood up for Duffy’s underlings, and was fired from his $1 million-a-year job.
Lataillade joined the fashion company in 1996, but was fired in September last year. He is seeking unspecified monetary damages from the defendants, including Marc Jacobs International and its parent company Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy.
The company denied the allegations, saying there were “false” and that Lataillade was fired for “serious matters unrelated to the allegations contained in the complaint.”
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October 22nd, 2011 
Fashionista 
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