Amid scrambled Instagram posts, closed and unclosed stores, and a court order to replace Brandon Truaxe as CEO, the latest chapter in the dramatic Deciem saga involves Estée Lauder Cosmetics Inc., which owns 28% of the company, filing a restraining order against Truaxe.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Leonard Lauder, the chairman emeritus of Estée Lauder, and Andrew Ross, Lauder’s senior vice president of strategy and new business, reportedly received a threatening email from Truaxe last week saying that he was on his way to New York to confront them, following their dismissal of him as CEO earlier this month.
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One day after the email, Estée Lauder filed a request for a restraining order against Truaxe with the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario. According to the WSJ, the judge granted the company an order on Friday that bars Truaxe from all forms of communication with Lauder and Ross, and prohibits Truaxe from entering the Lauder offices and being within 300 meters of either of the mens' homes.
On Sunday, in an Instagram post that has since been deleted, Truaxe apologized for the email, saying he was "very angry and confused," and that he regrets the email "tremendously." He then posted a video in which he says: "In case the message is not clear, I’m fine, I’m well, everything is OK. I’m sorry that my team and our shareholders and directors have been so stupid... Look, it’s all changing. Criminals are going to jail. Deciem is going to be restored. A lot of the team is going to [be] fired for not doing their job, for participating in crimes, knowingly or unknowingly. But the good news is that I’m okay, everything is okay."
In case you're just now joining us, this all comes after Truaxe abruptly announced that he was shutting down the company and closing all stores earlier this month, which spurred Lauder to sue Truaxe and kick him out of the company as CEO, board member, and President. With Truaxe out, Deciem has since been back in operation, with Nicola Kilner as sole interim CEO.
Truaxe continues to post Deciem emails and comment on Deciem stories from his personal Instagram account, where his bio still reads "CEO at Deciem." We will update this story as we hear more.