Latest news with #Eggleston
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
EXCLUSIVE: Farfetch Reboots Under Coupang, With a Focus on Customers and the Marketplace
LONDON — After a near-death experience at the end of 2023, Farfetch has been coming back to life under new owners Coupang with a customer-first strategy, a renewed focus on the marketplace model and a determination to hang onto its retail businesses Browns and Stadium Goods. After months of stock market drama and questionable decisions by founder José Neves that eventually led to the company's collapse, the narrative is now one of sustainable growth. More from WWD Modes Enters Business Restructuring Mode, CEO Exits Role Coupang Says Farfetch Turnaround Is Taking Root Three Graffiti Artists Take Legal Action Against Vivienne Westwood and Farfetch A little more than a year after Coupang purchased Farfetch out of administration, it has managed to resuscitate the once-ailing business at a difficult time for online luxury retail. As reported, Farfetch achieved revenues of $1.7 billion in 2024, while losses narrowed to $34 million. In February, Coupang said the company was on a 'positive trajectory,' and turned a profit in the fourth quarter. That compares with 2022, the last full year that Farfetch reported financials, when revenues were $2.3 billion and losses hit $98.7 million. 'We worked really hard over the last 12 to 15 months to stabilize the business financially, and we're in a great place. We are seeing green shoots,' said Stephen Eggleston, chief commercial officer of Farfetch, in an exclusive interview — the first since Coupang took over the business. 'And what makes me really proud is the way we went about achieving profitability. The focus has been on disciplined investment. We have prioritized the most important parts of the business, and made sure that every dollar we're spending is driving a beneficial customer experience, loyalty and retention,' he added. Eggleston said that with gross merchandise value of $2.6 billion, Farfetch is the largest online luxury platform worldwide, and growing at pace. It is seeing double-digit growth in the U.S., its single-largest market, and Eggleston believes there is a long runway ahead. 'We're just at the start of the journey of driving this business forward,' said Eggleston, who joined Farfetch in 2016 from Qubit, which creates personalization tools for e-commerce companies. He is one of very few managers who has worked both with Neves, and the team at Coupang. Coupang, a publicly listed Fortune 200 company with e-commerce operations and support services in markets including South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China and India, has been taking a soft-touch approach to Farfetch, which operates independently and has its own management organization. Coupang is also taking taking a very different approach than Neves, who stepped down as chief executive officer more than a year ago to head his namesake foundation, Fundação José Neves, based in Portugal. Neves was all about growing Farfetch through acquisitions, building third-party websites and consulting on digital strategy for brands including Chanel and Harvey Nichols. All of those strategies took Neves farther away from the original no-inventory, marketplace model he created for small boutiques around the world to reach an international, luxury-hungry customer. Some would argue that Neves' buccaneering approach was suited to the times. For many of the 15 years he built Farfetch, luxury multibrand e-commerce was booming, while investors wanted to see growth — and weren't too worried about profitability. Farfetch, which Neves launched in 2008, delivered that growth, becoming one of the U.K.'s few unicorns with a $1 billion-plus valuation which, as the years passed, hit $24 billion. But all that unraveled in the final quarter of 2023, leaving Neves, and his remaining investors, out of pocket. In all that time, Farfetch never turned a profit, and spent most of its years hemorrhaging money. Farfetch also fell victim to certain events beyond its control including Russian sanctions, China's long road out of lockdown, and spiraling inflation and interest rates. Neves and some of his former managers are still in the midst of legal wrangling. Former investors, long-term bond holders and the company's liquidators Alvarez & Marsal are trying to understand how the business collapsed so quickly, and why it was sold to Coupang for $500 million in rescue funding. Eggleston, who has been with Farfetch for eight years and whose background is in software development and e-commerce tech, has been helping Coupang write a new chapter for the company. As part of those efforts he's been focused on the marketplace, which generates the majority of sales, and which has proven resilient despite the slowdown in luxury demand. 'We thought about what the mission was, and why we exist, and it's very much about going back to our roots, and to the marketplace,' Eggleston said. He believes the marketplace model allows for 'freedom of fashion expression through boundless choice. Every piece of customer research we've ever done says our customer, whether they're top-tier or entry level, loves choice.' Eggleston argued that customers click on Farfetch to find everything from the season's bestseller 'to pieces they can't find anywhere else. That's the purpose of Farfetch, and that's why we're really excited about reinvigorating customer choice, self-expression — and discovery.' The Farfetch marketplace is now home to 1,500 brands, boutiques and department stores, and the latest brand campaign reflects the diversity of the offer. Set in Los Angeles, it features American singer Kelela, actor and filmmaker Luca Fersko and a cast of characters who all have a different approach to dressing. Although Kering and Richemont pulled their brands off Farfetch after the Coupang sale, other luxury names including Prada, Brunello Cucinelli, Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Ralph Lauren, Jenny Packham and Erdem chose to stay. Packham, who specializes in occasion, evening and bridal wear and whose clients include the Princess of Wales, Kate Winslet, Emily Blunt and Adele, said her relationship with Farfetch 'has continued to grow, and the change in ownership has not affected our successful partnership. We appreciate their global outreach, and [our] ability to curate the collection independently,' Packham said. Some Kering brands, such as Balenciaga, Saint Laurent and Gucci, are available to buy pre-owned, or new through various boutiques on the Farfetch platform, or through its resale or concierge services. Eggleston said the site has sourced and sold 50 Hermès bags already this year, while one client turned to Farfetch to help him order 100 pairs of made-to-order shoes. Just like its competitor Mytheresa, which had GMV of 913.6 million euros in fiscal 2024, Farfetch generates a large slice of its revenue from a small percentage of EICs, or extremely important customers. That EIC cohort has become ever more precious as aspirational shoppers continue to pull back on spending. Farfetch has been wooing them with dinners, special events and dedicated personal shoppers, who scour the international markets for rare, or custom-made pieces. Farfetch has held parties and events for those high-spending clients with brands including Dolce & Gabbana, Brunello Cucinelli and Ralph Lauren during key seasonal moments such as Milan's Salone del Mobile and at the Cannes Film Festival. They are certainly spending — and not just on fashion. The Farfetch marketplace, which stocks brands including Richard Mille, Audemars Piguet and Rolex, has sold 20 watches, each costing more than $100,000, so far this year. In a few weeks' time, Farfetch will have to fight harder for those EICs after Mytheresa completes its planned acquisition of Yoox Net-a-porter. Mytheresa's CEO Michael Kliger has said his aim is to create a 4 billion-euro online juggernaut with Mytheresa, Net-a-porter and Mr Porter operating under separate shopfronts. The discount businesses Yoox and The Outnet will be run separately. As part of its comeback efforts, Farfetch has been polishing the machinery of the business as well, slashing clearance and markdown activity, and extending its free returns policy to 30 days. It is also keeping a lid on costs and allowing brands and stores to supply images of their merchandise to the site. In the old days brands sent merchandise to be photographed in the U.K. and Portugal, where Farfetch had built state-of-the-art studios. Although the marketplace is the star of the show, Eggleston said Browns, Stadium Goods and the resale service remain important parts of the business. 'Physical retail is a really important tool we can use to engage our top tier of customers,' he said, referring to Browns in London, which opened a high-tech store on Brook Street in Mayfair in 2021. Browns was one of the first stand-alone businesses that Neves purchased. It was meant to fuse digital and physical retail and be a hub for personal shopping and immersive experiences. It also has a bar and courtyard restaurant called 123V Browns that serves plant-based sushi from the chef Alexis Gauthier. Farfetch is backing Stadium Goods, too. 'Every tier of customer — and especially our top tier of customer and our collectors — are really going after incredible sneakers that are only available via businesses like Stadium Goods,' Eggleston said. 'It has been a really powerful contributor to our business and is absolutely something we'll continue to focus on to drive our marketplace business forward,' he added. The resale business remains an important pillar as well, especially for the EICs. In 2021 Farfetch acquired the resale platform Luxclusif, which helped it turbocharge the sale of pre-owned products across a variety of categories including eyewear, kids, watches and jewelry. 'Resale helps drive circularity and plays a really important part in helping us access incredible product. The category performed really well for us over the last year, and we continue to see great results. We are making sure that business continues to thrive,' he said. New Guards Group, parent of European and U.S. contemporary brands that Neves acquired in 2019, is a different story. The NGG acquisition was troublesome from the get-go, with analysts and industry-watchers asking why the Farfetch marketplace, which didn't hold inventory, wanted to become a brand owner with warehouses full of stock. The answer was that Farfetch, which was quoted on the Nasdaq, was under pressure to show growth, quarter-after-quarter, and the acquisition of NGG was one way of getting there. Last year, NGG, which was also the licensee of Off-White, sought Chapter 11-style bankruptcy protection in Italy two weeks after losing the license to distribute Reebok footwear and apparel in Europe. Although NGG is still home to brands including Marcelo Burlon County of Milan, Unravel Project, Heron Preston, Peggy Gou, Ambush and There Was One, other brands such as Palm Angels and Alanui have been repurchased by their founders, or outside investors. As Farfetch writes its new chapter there are opportunities galore, but big challenges remain as well. One of them is Kering, which pulled its brands off Farfetch in 2024, shortly after the sale to Coupang. At the time it described Farfetch as 'a small player for Kering, and not a strategic partner.' Eggleston would like to see Kering return. 'We built a big, high-quality business together, which I am really proud of. I can't say why they exited, but I am 100 percent confident that Farfetch is stronger when it partners with the Kering brands,' and vice versa, Eggleston said. 'I would love for us to rekindle that partnership, although I know Kering is going through its own period of change. But Farfetch is here, with the door wide open, ready to welcome them back as soon as they are ready. Hopefully that will be soon. In the meantime, I'll continue to knock on their door,' he said. It's doubtful that Richemont, which was poised to sell Yoox Net-a-porter to Farfetch and to work closely with the Farfetch white label service, will ever return. It cut all its ties immediately after the company was sold to Coupang, and eventually agreed to sell YNAP to Mytheresa. The deal is set to close in the next few weeks. The Trump tariffs, which were announced late Wednesday, also present a challenge given the importance of the U.S. market for Farfetch. Eggleston said the company has been working to ensure there will be no hiccups in terms of the shopping experience, and the priority is to support the customer — no matter what happens. 'We've also been speaking to the brands a lot. We know they're going through their own decision-making about what tariffs will mean from a pricing perspective, and how they might change their pricing architecture to accommodate them,' he said. Whatever the future brings, Eggleston said Coupang's focus will always be on serving the Farfetch customers, brands and retailers in the fast-moving — and often unpredictable — world of luxury e-commerce. Best of WWD Stella McCartney: Championing Ethical Fashion with Feminine Elegance [PHOTOS] Abby Champion's Style Through the Years: From Runway Model to Red Carpet Fixture With Patrick Schwarzenegger [PHOTOS] Prosthetics in Fashion: 25 Years of Transforming Beauty Standards on the Runway [PHOTOS]
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate Ethics Committee adopts final report detailing facts of Ellsworth contract
The Montana Senate is seen during the Wednesday, February 12, 2025 session. (Nathaniel Bailey for the Daily Montanan) The Senate Ethics Committee on Wednesday adopted its final report detailing the factual findings related to Sen. Jason Ellsworth's rushed attempt to procure a $170,100 contract for a friend and business associate, Bryce Eggleston. More than seven weeks after the Senate voted unanimously to convene the ethics panel to investigate allegations into impropriety by Ellsworth, the four members finalized their task with a 34-page report. The committee's findings will go to the full Senate body, which will establish its own conclusions and determine whether to punish Ellsworth, which could range from a censure to expulsion from the Senate. No timeline has yet been established for the Senate to review the findings, but Chairperson Forrest Mandeville said the committee completed a significant task. The 62 findings, an amalgamation of documents and three days of hearings, lay out a two-decade friendship and professional relationship between Ellsworth and Eggleston; reference interim committee meetings when Ellsworth proposed hiring someone to do similar work on a part-time basis, which the committee rejected; detail the six-day push by Ellsworth, legislative and Department of Administration staff to make the agreement conform to state procurement rules; and account for the numerous times when Ellsworth could have disclosed his conflict of interest due to his pre-existing relationship with Eggleston. Because the committee's task was to present facts to the Senate body to consider, the report's conclusion states that the witnesses who testified were credible, and that 'this report is an accurate findings of fact relevant to the allegation referred to the Senate Ethics Committee.' During three days this week, committee members worked through drafts, with Democrats on the committee pushing for the majority of the revisions, citing a desire to closely adhere to the committee's fact-finding mission. . 'I am unconcerned by the harshness of any statements made, I am concerned about them being factually accurate,' Sen. Laura Smith, D-Helena, said on Monday. 'That's why I keep going back to 'Let's put in the facts. Let's put in quotes from the testimony. Let's build it in a way that people can understand.'' Adam Duerk, who served as special counsel for the ethics committee, cautioned if 'they're clear and harsh but absolutely true, we consider carefully before much revision is made.' During Wednesday's meeting, the committee debated additions Smith, who is a former federal prosecutor, suggested, ultimately including statements from Eggleston's submitted video testimony that Ellsworth had no financial interest in Eggleston's company, Agile Analytics, but that the committee received no documentation to confirm or deny those statements. The committee learned Ellsworth had a close personal relationship with Eggleston, which the senator failed to disclose prior to inking the contract. Other proposed changes that prompted committee discussion revolved around the testimony of Legislative Auditor Angus Maciver, who substantiated allegations that Ellsworth's actions amounted to waste and abuse. Earlier versions of the report spent several paragraphs delving into conclusions reached by Maciver, which Smith said was outside the scope of the committee. 'I really struggle with this idea that we would include someone else's conclusion about the facts, and I think this borders the line between the questions of fact and the questions of law,' Smith said, adding that citing the auditor's testimony was better than citing his office's conclusions. Duerk pushed back, saying that since the auditor's memo 'itself is a fact,' both the testimony and memo carry 'considerable' weight. 'All of this … addresses the appearance of an impropriety,' he said. A separate criminal investigation is underway at the Department of Justice. The ethics investigation – which stretched out weeks longer than initially anticipated — created substantial additional work for the four senators assigned to the committee, as well as legislative staff, and committee members expressed satisfaction with completing their mission. Mandeville thanked the committee members and staff for their time and work ethic throughout the process before he gaveled the committee adjourned. 'That was my favorite gavel,' he said. signed Report and Findings of Fact with attachments
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate Ethics Committee probes close relationship between Ellsworth and associate
Senator Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, watches a vote during the Senate Floor Session on Wednesday, February 12, 2025. (Nathaniel Bailey for the Daily Montanan) A key witness in a Senate investigation skirted a subpoena to appear before the Senate Ethics Committee, and his video interview spurred criticism he was trying to avoid scrutiny. Over three days this month, the committee heard testimony about a contract former Senate President Jason Ellsworth signed with his business associate and friend Bryce Eggleston, who declined to appear before the committee. The committee reviewed its findings Monday. The testimony detailed the close relationship between the two — including Ellsworth's appearance at Eggleston's wedding — a relationship not disclosed during the procurement of the contract. Legislative Audit found the procurement process a waste of state resources and abuse of power, and its findings prompted the committee's investigation. The committee is nearing the end of its weeks-long fact-finding mission into alleged ethical violations by Ellsworth, who has been participating in the Senate remotely. Neither Ellsworth nor Eggleston testified before the committee — Ellsworth on advice from his legal counsel, and Eggleston by pleading the Fifth and avoiding a subpoena to appear. In response to the video statement by Eggleston, Sen. Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, said he objected to a witness pleading the Fifth but providing a 'friendly' interview. 'He's able to lambast this committee as essentially a witch hunt without having to answer any questions from this committee. I found it highly one-sided and frankly, a bit upsetting,' said McGillvray, one of four members of the Senate Ethics Committee. Ellsworth, a Hamilton Republican who served as Senate President from 2023-2024, sought to hire Eggleston for consulting work related to a series of judicial reform bills stemming from an interim committee Ellsworth formed and led. The committee aims to establish whether Ellsworth improperly procured the state contract without disclosing his relationship with Eggleston, of Agile Analytics. The nature of the deal, initially submitted as two nearly two identical contracts but later combined into a single agreement, and Ellsworth's behind-the-scenes rush to get them approved prompted the Senate to call for an investigation by the Legislative auditor into waste, fraud and abuse concerns, and a subsequent Ethics Committee investigation. Attorneys for the committee drafted a report summarizing the investigation's timeline and condensing weeks of work and hours of witness testimony into 27 proposed findings. Among the draft findings, the committee report lays out the close personal and professional relationship between Ellsworth and Eggleston, which stretches back two decades; the 'highly unusual' situation by which the contracts came together; and several statements indicating Ellsworth had not disclosed his relationship with Eggleston to legislative and administrative staff during the contracting process. The committee made several suggestions to revise the draft report and will review the amended findings on Tuesday morning. Once the report is approved, it will be sent to the full Senate body for consideration. A separate simultaneous criminal investigation is underway at the Department of Justice. At the committee's Saturday meeting, special counsel for the committee Adam Duerk informed members that a subpoena had been served to Eggleston but that he opted to assert his Fifth Amendment rights to not incriminate himself and declined to appear before the committee. Instead, Duerk laid out that Eggleston and Ellsworth have a long documented history, including that Ellsworth employed Eggleston at one of his magazine subscription companies more than a decade ago. A series of Facebook posts and photos, submitted as evidence with a signed declaration by Sen. Sue Vinton, R-Billings, cemented the personal relationship between the two. Duerk told the committee that in 2018, Eggleston referred to Ellsworth as his 'friend, boss and mentor' in a post about Ellsworth's initial run for office. A photo from 2017 shows the two together at Eggleston's wedding, while another makes it appear the two were 'gym workout partners,' Duerk said. Joan Mell, Ellsworth's attorney, shared a sworn video statement she conducted with Eggleston earlier in the week, which she said was done without knowledge that he would not appear. The committee watched the hour-long video, in which Mell questioned Eggleston about his relationship with Ellsworth, and whether the former Senate president had any financial stake in Agile Analytics. Eggleston also stated that he thought the entire investigation appeared to be an attempt to publicly smear Ellsworth and himself. 'It seems like there's a concerted effort, politically motivated, to discredit Senator Ellsworth, and I am a casualty of that,' Eggleston said. 'I feel that my rights have been violated. I've been publicly lambasted.' On March 7, 14 and 15, the Ethics Committee held hearings as part of its fact-finding mission, calling numerous witnesses involved in the contract process. During Friday's hearing, the committee heard testimony from Misty Ann Giles, director of the Department of Administration, which oversees many procurement processes within state government; Ken Varns, an attorney with the Legislative Audit Division; Angus McIver, Legislative Auditor; Bowen Greenwood, Clerk of the Montana Supreme Court, and Todd Everts, the Legislative Code Commissioner. Duerk questioned the witnesses and framed testimony as solidifying the allegations that Ellsworth made ethical missteps by failing to disclose his long-time relationship with Eggleston while contracting the work to someone with little-to-no experience in the political arena. 'In my expert opinion, in 20 years, I just believe it's best practice that if you do know a vendor — even if it's just a personal relationship, a friendship, anything like that, again, it doesn't necessarily kick you out — I just think it's best practice to disclose that just because you never want the appearance that you're trying to do something inappropriate, put your thumb on the scale for someone you may know outside of that business context,' Giles said during her testimony. In later questioning by the committee, Giles said the situation would be 'much more problematic' had legislative and DOA staff not flagged the initial contracts, each for roughly $85,000, under the $100,000 ceiling that would have sent them to her department in the first place. Instead, staff worked to craft a better contract Giles said contained the state's usual terms and conditions. The initial contracts were written to be paid for upfront, in full, and were not tied to any specific work products. The subsequent contract was to be billed and paid monthly. 'At least we were able to get it under our state terms, have the standard terminate-for-convenience language so that contract could be terminated,' Giles said. 'No funds went out the door, because we also changed those payment terms.' The contract was cancelled before any payments were made. Greenwood, who beat Ellsworth in a primary for the Clerk of Montana Supreme Court position in 2024, testified that Ellsworth had pitched Eggleston as a potential candidate for a communications job in the clerk's office in summer 2024, despite the job not existing. 'It wasn't my idea to begin with,' Greenwood said, but he had a few conversations with Ellsworth about the possibility. 'We were talking about the prospect of appropriating the money for this position, and we had just mentioned the salary, and he said he had somebody in mind, and it was, of course, Bryce Eggleston,' Greenwood told the committee. Greenwood met with Eggleston, and earlier told the Daily Montanan he was 'not persuaded that it was a good idea,' and the prospective job never went any further. In closing remarks, Mell emphasized the political nature of the investigation, taking aim at current Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, who initiated the investigation by the Legislative Auditor. 'I would just propose that you didn't need an investigation to know that Ellsworth knew Eggleston and trusted his work,' Mell said. 'In fact, that was the presenting complaint by President Regier. He went to the Legislative Auditor and precipitated a fraud, abuse and waste allegation, knowing of the relationship.' 'That's why it feels very politicized.' The senate voted unanimously to convene the Ethics Committee in January. Mell said that the work done by Ellsworth to follow up on a suite of legislation passed by the interim Judicial Oversight and Reform Committee was done on behalf of the Montana Legislature, to ensure judicial reform policies, a priority for Republicans, were enacted. 'This is an example where you had an extraordinary resource with an extraordinary senator who is willing to graciously afford you guys those resources to do good work,' Mell said. '… Ellsworth didn't want to fail. He didn't want to fail you, he didn't want to fail the public. And he was taking on an unprecedented, nearly insurmountable challenge to try to get the courts back in its own lane. Get it to respect the Legislature.' Special Counsel Duerk focused his closing arguments on the principle of full disclosure at the heart of the state's ethics rules. He reiterated many points from witness testimony that indicated the contracts Ellsworth procured and the manner they were crafted was 'an intentional evasion of any meaningful review and scrutiny.' 'I certainly can't tell you what to do as special counsel,' Duerk said. 'So I'd ask you to consider this question. Can anyone plausibly argue that there is no appearance of impropriety in the Agile contract after everything you've heard?'
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Saginaw city councilwoman and former council candidate to stand trial for election law forgery
Photo byThe election law forgery case against a Saginaw City Council member and a candidate for the council was bound over to trial on Friday. The Michigan Attorney General's Office, who is prosecuting the case, is alleging that City Councilwoman Monique Lamar-Silvia, 64, and former candidate for Saginaw City Council Eric Eggleston, 53, together forged documents in order to get Eggleston on the 2024 General Election ballot. Lamar-Silvia signed the names of Saginaw voters fraudulently on a petition in the hopes of getting Eggleston a spot on the ballot on July 23, 2024, according to the state Attorney General's Office. Eggleston then signed a form, falsely asserting that he circulated the petition and submitted the documents to the clerk's office, the office says. Eggleston faces two five-year felonies of conspiracy and election law forgery, as well as one misdemeanor charge of falsely signing a nominating petition as a circulator when he was not the circulator. Lamar-Silvia faces two five-year felonies of conspiracy and election law forgery and two misdemeanor charges of falsely signing multiple names to a nominating petition and signing a nominating petition with a name other than her own. Eggleston did not appear on the 2024 ballot and the Saginaw County Clerk filed a complaint of election fraud to the Department of State, which referred the matter to the state Attorney General's Office. A pretrial date has not been set yet. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Associated Press
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Montana Senate votes to send Ellsworth investigation to Department of Justice
Allegations of criminal activity by former Montana Senate leader Jason Ellsworth are being handed over to the state Department of Justice following a heated Thursday floor debate in the Senate chambers in which minority Democrats prevailed. Against the wishes of the Republican leadership, lawmakers voted to suspend a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into Ellsworth and send allegations of criminal official misconduct to Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen. The move by Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers came after Republicans attempted to strip Ellsworth of a key committee assignment, at which point Flowers said the political motivations of Ellsworth's own party made it impossible to adjudicate the 2023 Senate president fairly. 'It shined a bright light on what this is about, from my perspective,' Flowers said. 'If this was going to continue for next week, two weeks, three weeks of this process, it was time to get it out of this body. Let us get to work on actual legislation and let the Department of Justice do the investigation.' Republicans have openly stated that Ellsworth is guilty since news broke that he awarded $170,100 in contracted work to a former business associate, Bryce Eggleston. Ethics proceedings against the Hamilton Republican were launched after a brief investigation in which neither Ellsworth nor Eggleston were interviewed. Initially when selecting an attorney to prosecute the case, Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, chose Matt Monforton, a lawyer and former Republican legislator who had been disparaging Ellsworth on social media for several days. With support from a handful of Republicans, Democrats managed a 27-22 win to send the Ellsworth matter to prosecutors at the DOJ. The chamber has 32 Republicans and 18 Democrats. Ellsworth voted with the Democrats to send his case to Knudsen. Ellsworth is accused of splitting the contract awarded to Eggleston into two agreements to avoid state law requiring contracts of $100,000 or more to be competitively bid. The split contract, and questions about Eggleston's ability to do the work, are the foundation of the Senate's case against its former leader. Under the agreement, Eggleston was to observe and report on state agencies as they put into practice laws proposed by Republican legislators to limit the power of Montana courts. Monday, a Senate Ethics Committee of two Republicans and two Democrats formalized the allegations against Ellsworth, identifying two potential violations of the law: official misconduct, a misdemeanor punishable with up to six months in jail; and failure to disclose a conflict of interest. At one point in the Monday proceeding, Ellsworth's attorney, Joan Mell, suggested that any criminal allegations be left to the state Department of Administration to identify and, if warranted, referred to the county attorney. Senate Republicans on Thursday responded in acrimony after Flowers succeeded in delivering the case to the Department of Justice. Republican Sen. Daniel Emrich of Great Falls announced that he would attempt expulsion votes against both Ellsworth and Flowers on Friday. Emrich then accused Flowers of referring to Ellsworth as the minority leader's 'golden goose,' for delivering just enough Republican votes for the chamber's 18 Democrats to control the Senate. The allegation brought every Democrat in the chamber to their feet in defense of Flowers as he demanded Emrich not be allowed to make false statements. Several Republicans voiced disappointment about referring the Ellsworth matter to the attorney general. 'I am angry. I am embarrassed and angry,' said Sen. John Fuller, R-Kalispell. 'And you do not want to see me angry because I have been known to hold a grudge for a long time.' At one point in the debate, Billings GOP Sen. Tom McGillvray, who had attempted to remove Ellsworth from the powerful Senate Finance and Claims Committee, announced that he was in communication via text message with Attorney General Knudsen and that Knudsen had indicated the Senate couldn't defer the criminal matter to the Department of Justice. That was met with gestures of disagreement by the four attorneys serving as Democrats in the Senate. The Republican majority doesn't include an attorney. 'The duties of the attorney general are to be able to appoint a county attorney, when ordered or directed, to institute and prosecute and put in the proper court,' said Sen. Shane Morigeau, a Democrat and attorney from Missoula. 'I think what we did today is we've made a point very clear that there have been allegations of official misconduct, of criminal activity.' Republicans suggested that handing the Ellsworth matter to prosecutors would assure the outcome of the investigation into his actions wouldn't be decided before the 2025 Legislature ended. The simmering subtext was that Senate conservatives had identified Ellsworth as a moderate voter capable of preventing hard-right members of the party from killing key legislation like continuing an expanded Medicaid eligibility, which Republican moderates and Democrats have managed to keep alive for a decade. The first Senate floor session of the Legislature was just 15 minutes old when Senate Democrats staged a revolt by partnering with Ellsworth and a handful of other Republicans to secure better committee assignments for eight lawmakers stuck on a committee which they said had no real purpose. In doing so, they populated key committees with moderate voters capable of derailing conservative Republican priorities. ___
