Lisa Vanderpump Left Out To The Dogs In Explosive Fraud Lawsuit
Watch out Tom Schwartz and Tom Sandoval! The Vanderpump Rules duo is opening a new restaurant with Lisa Vanderpump later this year — but now RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal that their partner was accused of doing bad business in an explosive new lawsuit.
Vanderpump, 56, and her husband Ken Todd, 72, are being sued for fraud and breach of contract by the "premiere luxury brand for luxury pet couture" Fifi & Romeo. The company claims that Vanderpump failed to honor an "oral agreement" that they made and subsequently went against a signed business agreement.
The owner of Fifi & Romeo claimed that they met Vanderpump and Todd at the American Humane Association's Hero Dog Awards in 2012 and was later "asked to create a custom designed luxury outfit for their Pomeranian Giggy to wear to the American Humane Association's fashion show" later that year. The owner claimed Todd loved the outfit and asked the company to create more clothes for Giggy afterwards.
At that point, Vanderpump and Todd "orally proposed" that Fifi & Romeo provide custom outfits for Giggy "in exchange for their promotion of Fifi & Romeo's brand in all forms of media (including, but not limited to, Twitter, Instagram and all print)," according to the Los Angeles County court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com.
Their agreement was honored from May 2013 to October 2015 and they even decided to "execute a partnership agreement" where Vanderpump "would design exclusive pet clothing" for the brand and Fifi & Romeo would "manufacture and sell the apparel under the name 'Fifi Romeo for Vanderpump Pets'" in September 2015. But, the suit alleged that Vanderpump and Todd began acting strange just a week after the agreement was signed.
"Fifi & Romeo noticed that Vanderpump and Todd repeatedly failed to credit Fifi & Romeo in photos and television interviews in which Giggy wore their clothes," the company claimed. "In fact, in some instances, Vanderpump and Todd edited previous social media posts mentioning the company and purposely misspelled their brand name so they would not receive the proper recognition."
The suit alleged that Vanderpump and Todd also made just two payments before "failing" to cough up the rest of the manufacturing costs as discussed in their agreement. Then, Fifi & Romeo was excluded from Vanderpump's Yulin March event in October 2015.
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"For the eight months following the execution of the Parties' business agreement, Vanderpump and Todd continued to fail to credit Fifi & Romeo as per their oral agreement," the papers continued. "They began to become distant with the company and failed to return phone calls and requests for samples."
"Soon thereafter the company discovered Vanderpump and Todd created their own pet clothing line, Vanderpump Pets," the suit continued, noting that the reality stars did not include Fifi & Romeo in the line despite their agreement.
Finally, Fifi & Romeo claimed that the restaurateurs "never intended to honor their agreement, but rather intended to use them and their products to build their own brand and eventually launch their own dog apparel line."
Vanderpump Pets clothing and accessories are available to purchase online, and signature accessories are included in grooming packages at the Vanderpump Dogs center.
RadarOnline.com exclusively reported that the RHOBH star was in negations for a spin-off around her dog foundation earlier this year and even filmed scenes with Vanderpump Rules star Lala Kent.
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