Thread: AFTER 1,800 ILLEGALS LAID OFF - Shareholders Sue Dov Charney

Shareholders Sue Dov Charney

Court House News
By TIM HULL

LLOS ANGELES (CN) - Shareholders claim American Apparel, a publicly traded "distributor and retailer of 'hip' clothing for men, women, children and dogs," is on the verge of delisting, its stock price down more than 90 percent, after having to lay off 1,800 factory workers who could not prove their citizenship.

Shareholders blame CEO Dov Charney, who founded the company in the 1990s, took it public in 2006, and claimed in ads that his clothes are "Made in the USA."

The shareholders' derivative complaint claims that Charney and his board of directors misled investors, mismanaged the company and "irreparably damaged" its image.

The clothing company, based in downtown Los Angeles, employs about 10,000 people around the world and runs 285 retail stores in 20 countries, according to the complaint.

Shareholders say the share price has crashed from a high of $16.80 in December 2007 to $1.03, "because the company has had to disclose - not once, but twice - that its independent accounting auditors have found material weaknesses in its financial controls."

The complaint adds: "American Apparel has been beset by other problems, including having to lay off 1,800 experienced manufacturing employees who could not provide legal documentation in response to a federal immigration investigation. Losing one third of its manufacturing employees seriously damaged American Apparel's manufacturing efficiency and also seriously damaged its public image, since one of its main selling points is that its garments are 'Made in the USA.'"

Independent auditor Deloitte & Touche found that American Apparel failed to maintain adequate control of its accounting and financial reporting since 2008, according to the complaint. The auditor broke with the company in July "based on its doubts about the reliability of American Apparel's 2009 financial statements," shareholders say.

American Apparel received a federal subpoena in New York related to its problems with Deloitte & Touche, The New York Times reported Tuesday.


The company has not filed financial statements for the past two fiscal quarters and is "on the verge of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange," shareholders say in their complaint.
American Apparel's stock closed at $1.03 on Tuesday.

Along with lead defendant Charney, shareholders sued seven other directors. They seek restitution and damages, and want American Apparel to allow stockholders to elect at least three board members, and other corporate reforms. They are represented by Frances Bottini Jr. with Johnson Bottini of San Diego.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/08/18/29678.htm

I feel Charney were consistent and honorable the company should have established a manufacturing plant in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico for stitching together cut cloth from the United States. This would have then enabled them to continue employing their experienced help illegal here but legal there for assembly of clothing sold in Mexico. They have retail outlets there too.
<img src=http://www.americanapparel.net/storelocations/storephotos/mexico/mexico_04.jpg>

Originally Posted by Richard

I feel Charney were consistent and honorable the company should have established a manufacturing plant in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico for stitching together cut cloth from the United States. This would have then enabled them to continue employing their experienced help illegal here but legal there for assembly of clothing sold in Mexico. They have retail outlets there too.

=======================================

Whey you add NAFTA + CAFTA + MASSIVE OUTSOURCING it devastates American industry.

The textile and furniture industries are perfect examples.

HAPPY2BME


The textile and furniture industries are examples of failure to mechanize in the face of lower labor costs elsewhere. America can not afford to extort its consumers to protect workplaces with inferior goods and obsolete technology.



Read Roy Beck
The Case Against Immigration:
The Moral, Economic, Social, and
Environmental Reasons for
Reducing U.S. Immigration
Back to Traditional Levels

Couldn't have happened to a nicer slimeball globalist traitor, hopefully we can add more to the list.

Originally Posted by Richard

HAPPY2BME


The textile and furniture industries are examples of failure to mechanize in the face of lower labor costs elsewhere. America can not afford to extort its consumers to protect workplaces with inferior goods and obsolete technology.



Read Roy Beck

==================================

Roy Beck advocates OUTSOURCING American jobs?

Who knew?

Originally Posted by Bowman

Couldn't have happened to a nicer slimeball globalist traitor, hopefully we can add more to the list.

Ditto! And this scum had the audacity to use illegal invader labor while exploiting the made in the USA catchphrase! It doesn't get any lower than that!

HAPPY2BME

The choice is between a product made by immigrants in the United States where we are responsible for their family's education and health versus products made in a neighboring country where much of the input and the consumer purchases by the workers sends money here. Most of the other remaining employees at American Apparel are also immigrants just with papers. Is the amount those legal immigrant American Apparel employees pay in taxes cover the cost of government services they receive? Also the country has not degenerated to the extent that your being a worker in an outmoded industry allows you to force me to buy your over priced inferior product if I have a choice to buy an import if the import has a better cost quality trade off. Becks book gets this right.

Originally Posted by HAPPY2BME

Originally Posted by Richard

HAPPY2BME


The textile and furniture industries are examples of failure to mechanize in the face of lower labor costs elsewhere. America can not afford to extort its consumers to protect workplaces with inferior goods and obsolete technology.



Read Roy Beck

==================================

Roy Beck advocates OUTSOURCING American jobs?

Who knew?

I would listen to Richard here. The man knows his stuff. He is probably the most level headed person on Alipac, and he is obviously very educated on the subject. I need to read Beck's book as well.

When are you writing a book Richard?

Thanks I guess if everything I wrote was collected there would be a book already. I keep trying to get Mexican political scientist Fredo Arias King to write more on immigration but he is reluctant to get further involved. Right now instead he is involved in a reforestation project in Indian country in Michoacan to be able to create a greater domestic source of pine chemicals for Mexico. A lot of it now comes into Mexico from the United States where they are a biproduct of kraft paper. Would his project be considered outsourcing American jobs? Is his commentary less of value because he might at times export to the United States?

Fredo Arias King on Immigration
http://www.cis.org/taxonomy/term/125