06-03-2025
Alex and Ani sued by Pamela Love, a L.A.-based jewelry designer, for millions in unpaid bills
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The arrangement worked for its first seven months, according to the suit. But on March 12, 2024, Alex and Ani CEO Prita Kumar told Love's manager that the company was terminating the agreement 'because of the 'financial health'' of the brand. However, Love had already designed pieces for the company to sell, the suit alleged. And Kate Robinson, Alex and Ani's chief creative officer at the time, told Love that the designs were already in production and could not be returned or given back to Love. The pieces went on sale last summer, the suit said.
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In the lawsuit, Love and her attorney, Peter Fox, said they are looking to collect the unpaid money.
Designer Pamela Love attends the Opening Ceremony Dance Left Benefit at Spring Studios on December 2, 2017 in New York and Ani was
founded in 2004 in Cranston, R.I., by jewelry designer Carolyn Rafaelian, who named it after her eldest daughters. By 2014, the company was selling 10 million of its signature
expandable wire charm bracelets per year.
In a series of interviews with the Globe, Rafaelian said she was 'pushed out' and has not been involved with Alex and Ani since 2020. In 2022, Rafaelian launched
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In June 2021, after a series of high-profile problems — including lawsuits, years of executive turnover, and a ransomware attack — Alex and Ani was largely controlled by private equity firms and
Alex and Ani is now controlled by majority owner Lion Capital, a London-based firm
founded by English financier Lyndon Lea, while the remaining 35 percent of the company is controlled by the Bathing Club LLC.
Lea has not responded to multiple requests from the Globe for comment since November 2023.
The Bathing Club is controlled by Mark Geragos, a celebrity attorney who previously served as Alex and Ani's counsel. Geragos could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday.
Geragos, a long-time legal commentator on TV, has represented clients that include Lyle and Erik Menendez, Michael Jackson, Chris Brown, and other high-profile figures. He
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Love initiated arbitration to collect her unpaid fees in the spring of 2024. During the arbitration, lawyers for Alex and Ani admitted that the company was 'trying to find a way to pay Pamela her money,' the suit said.
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The arbitrator, former L.A. Superior Court judge Katherine Chilton, said the company's only justification for not paying Love was its poor financial health, and because its assets 'have been transferred to a third party.'
This week, Love's suit also alleges a long-time effort by executives to move assets around to make them more difficult for creditors to collect.
For example, in February 2023, Geragos's firm The Bathing Club initiated a security interest in Alex and Ani's assets, the suit said. In 2024, after Love began her arbitration, Lea also assigned a lien on all the company's assets to the Bathing Company.
'The transfer was from insider to insider,' the lawsuit said. 'With two insider liens on Alex and Ani's assets and no defenses to Pamela Love's claims ... Geragos caused the Bathing Club and Alex and Ani to execute a strict foreclosure on Alex and Ani's assets on or around July 24, 2024.'
The suit alleges that these moves were 'part of a sham to defraud creditors.'
Larry Meyer, an independent board member at Alex and Ani, declared during the arbitration that he was working on 'the orderly shutdown of the company.'
Alex and Ani's
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at
