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Harasser Silenced And Paid Off Five Victims

October 24, 2018 Blind Gossip

SOLVED!

[The Telegraph] A leading businessman has been granted an injunction against The Telegraph to prevent this newspaper revealing alleged sexual harassment and racial abuse of staff.

The accusations against the businessman, who cannot be identified, would be sure to reignite the #MeToo movement against the mistreatment of women, minorities and others by powerful employers.

#MeToo became a worldwide social media campaign last year after revelations about Harvey Weinstein, the American movie mogul. Like Weinstein, the British businessman used controversial non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to silence and pay off his alleged victims with “substantial sums”.

…

The Telegraph spent the past eight months investigating allegations of bullying, intimidation and sexual harassment made against the businessman, but on Tuesday this newspaper was prevented from revealing details of the non-disclosure deals by Sir Terence Etherton, the Master of the Rolls, the second most senior judge in England and Wales.

His intervention makes it illegal to reveal the businessman’s identity or to identify the companies, as well as what he is accused of doing or how much he paid his alleged victims.

In a 20-page ruling published on Tuesday, the Court of Appeal simply refers to the businessman as “ABC” and describes the allegations as amounting to “discreditable conduct”. The interim injunction order states that in five cases “substantial payments” were made to five people as part of “settlement agreements” or NDAs.

…

The accused man has hired a team of at least seven lawyers and spent close to £500,000 in legal fees to persuade the Court of Appeal to injunct The Telegraph. He is being represented by Schillings, the legal firm which has also worked with Cristiano Ronaldo, Lance Armstrong and Ryan Giggs, individuals who have controversially made use of NDAs or injunctions to silence accusations of wrongdoing.

On Tuesday, in the latest twist in a legal fight which began in July, the court ruled that the confidentiality of contracts was more important than freedom of speech.

…

Sources said that the businessman’s behaviour created a negative culture within his companies where many were unhappy about their treatment, which included being humiliated in front of other staff.

The disclosures will raise concerns about how non-disclosure agreements are used to “cover up” potential wrongdoing as well as whether it is appropriate for injunctions to be granted to protect an individual’s privacy when serious allegations have been made.

BG Note: You can read the full article here.

Similar: Beauty Seeks Billionaire

Businessman and/or Company:

[Optional] Do you think that if a man pays off his accusers, he must be guilty?

SOLVED!

Businessman and/or Company: Sir Philip Green, the CEO of Topshop

Philip Green was just named as the British businessman who has been trying to silence both the accusers and the press about his history of sexual harassment and racial abuse of staff.

Green is known to Blind Gossip readers as the father of Chloe Green, the Topshop heiress. You may recall that Blind Gossip was the first to tell you that Chloe Green was pregnant by hot felon Jeremy Meeks in 2017 (see Lock And Key Announcement).

Philip Green is a British tycoon businessman and the owner of several large British companies. He is the Chairman of Arcadia Group, a retail company that includes Topshop, Topman, Wallis, Evans, Burton, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, and Outfit. The BHS department store chain used to be part of the group.

The retail billionaire became Sir Philip Green after he was recommended for knighthood by Former Prime Minster Tony Blair in 2006. After a pension scandal, Parliament unsuccessfully tried to rescind his knighthood.

The facts that Green’s daughter is dating a biracial man – and that Green is the grandfather of their new baby – make the charges of racism particularly interesting.

It is also interesting that Green spent an enormous amount of money (£500,000) to gag the victims and the press, but was eventually called out in public by a Member of Parliament (see clip below)!

From The Independent:

Philip Green named in parliament as businessman who gagged media from publishing sexual harassment allegations

Sir Philip Green has been named as the “leading businessman” who obtained a privacy injunction to prevent the media publishing allegations by former employees.

The 66-year-old chairman of Arcadia Group, which includes fashion brands such as Topshop and Dorothy Perkins, was named by a peer using parliamentary privilege.

Lord Hain, a Labour peer, told the House of Lords: “I have been contacted by someone intimately involved in the case of a powerful businessman using non-disclosure agreements and substantial payments to conceal [allegations] about serious and repeated sexual harassment, racist abuse and bullying.

“I feel it’s my duty under parliamentary privilege to name Philip Green as the individual in question, given that the media have been subjected to an injunction preventing publication of the full details of a story which is clearly in the public interest.”

Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, said British laws appear to “allow rich and powerful men to do whatever they want as long as they can pay to keep it quiet”.

…

There have also been calls to limit the use of NDAs following the “Me Too” movement, after it was revealed that disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein deployed them to keep alleged victims quiet.

They have also been used in politics, with figures revealing that the House of Commons spent more than £2.4m through NDAs over the last five years.

You can read the entire article here.

Congratulations to Twodots for being first with the correct guess!

Related: Lock And Key Announcement

 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kellikopter says

    October 26, 2018 at 5:46 pm

    Good on Lord Hain for having the courage and integrity to speak up.

  2. sweetdee7 says

    October 25, 2018 at 2:36 pm

    Absolutely no one in the UK is surprised that it’s Philip Green.

  3. Spottytiger says

    October 25, 2018 at 8:26 am

    Sir Phillip Green… Lord Hain has told the world today and sleazy Green can’t do anything about it – Parliamentary privileges and all that!
    Me thinks he should be stripped of his Knighthood for starters!

    • JHntr113 says

      October 25, 2018 at 8:24 pm

      They tried to strip him of it once, hopefully they try again and can make it stick!

  4. droopyorchid says

    October 25, 2018 at 8:25 am

    Yup, revealed as Phillip Green

    Not necessarily guilty but when it comes to him then yes

  5. alinaa says

    October 25, 2018 at 8:22 am

    Well Alan Sugar’s already addressed it on Twitter and said it wasn’t him, didn’t think it was anyway

  6. Mumumumu says

    October 25, 2018 at 8:04 am

    It has just been announced: It’s Philip Green.

    Lord Peter Hain, a former Labour cabinet member, told the House of Commons he felt a ‘duty’ to reveal the name. He said: ‘I feel it’s my duty under parliamentary privilege to name Philip Green as the individual in question given that the media have been subject to an injunction preventing publication of the full details of this story which is clearly in the public interest.’

  7. hobowok8 says

    October 25, 2018 at 7:44 am

    TopShop pop.

  8. NoYoureatowel says

    October 25, 2018 at 7:31 am

    Sir Phillip Green. I don’t think it’s Branson or Sugar.

  9. cco002 says

    October 25, 2018 at 4:14 am

    Richard Branson

  10. carriebradshaw says

    October 25, 2018 at 3:32 am

    Musk?
    optional: he is guilty. they pay only if their victims have something to prove their accusations, like the one who got 32 millions from Fox.

  11. pina colada says

    October 25, 2018 at 1:10 am

    I hope this is Richard Branson and he finally gets brought down

  12. French Delicacy says

    October 25, 2018 at 12:48 am

    Richard Bronson. This 500 000 in legal fees tell me he is seriously loaded.

  13. spookie says

    October 24, 2018 at 11:41 pm

    Alan Sugar?

  14. Parade says

    October 24, 2018 at 10:33 pm

    It’s David Matthews, owner of Eden Rock hotel (the Matthews are the hired help, with money) and Pippa Middleton’s father-in-law.

  15. AliekaZola says

    October 24, 2018 at 10:00 pm

    Mike Ashley

    A lot of people here in the UK can’t stand him because of his treatment of his employees. Mainly the ones who work for Sports Direct. He treats the members of his football team (Newcastle United) like crap as well. He’s just a money grubbing, cheap, disrespectful so and so.

  16. aaabm93 says

    October 24, 2018 at 8:22 pm

    I’m probably way off, but Alan Sugar?

  17. sunshine702 says

    October 24, 2018 at 7:59 pm

    Sir Rupert Murdoch
    Yes

  18. Xanadu says

    October 24, 2018 at 6:47 pm

    Richard Branson

    Virgin

  19. twodots says

    October 24, 2018 at 5:05 pm

    Sir Phillip Green. And he deserves every second of his inevitable downfall. Plenty of humiliating being done in the Arcadia head office. ✌?

  20. scottie5 says

    October 24, 2018 at 4:59 pm

    Richard Branson is my guess..

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