The former CEO of Plymouth-based Fresh Vine Wine Inc. has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the company and two executives, alleging she was fired after she reported $1 million in misappropriated funds.
Fresh Vine Wine execs embroiled in whistleblower lawsuit
A former CEO claims she was wrongly terminated after reporting financial irregularities to the company's board.
August 29, 2022 at 9:37PM
In court filings, defendants denied wrongdoing and asked the judge to dismiss the case. But, for now, the lawsuit is making its way through Minnesota's court system.
Fresh Vine Wine's owners include Hollywood celebrities Nina Dobrev and Julianne Hough and Minnesota entrepreneur Damian Novak, the company's executive chair and co-founder, who is one of the two executives named in the lawsuit.
The company produces wines including chardonnay, pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon through a contract manufacturer in California but has warehouse space and offices in Minnesota. It markets its products as lower in sugar than other wines.
In a lawsuit filed in Hennepin County District Court earlier this month, Janelle Anderson, a former chief executive, said she was terminated after communicating with the company board financial discrepancies tied to Novak and Rick Nechio, then the company's president and now Fresh Vine's interim CEO. The irregularities were found in an audit report.
According to the lawsuit, Novak and Nechio owed but refused to pay Fresh Vine $650,000 for services provided under contract for another wine firm that the two men owned. The lawsuit also accused Novak of failing to repay Fresh Vine Wine for $329,000 in expenses he was never entitled to receive following Fresh Vine's initial public offering in December 2021.
Lastly, the men are accused of using $127,000 in company money to pay for a personal yachting trip to Mexico.
Anderson said she repeatedly demanded that Novak and Nechio reimburse the company for the three sets of expenses but that they refused. She accuses them of retaliating against her and of violating the federal Whistleblower Protection Act.
She has asked the court for a jury trial and is seeking punitive damages in excess of $50,000.
Calls to Fresh Vine Wine, Novak, Nechio and their attorneys were not immediately returned.
This is the second lawsuit filed by a former Fresh Vine CEO. Tim Michaels filed a lawsuit in May alleging the company undervalued the restricted stock granted to him shortly before the company's IPO.
The Birds Eye plant recruited workers without providing all the job details Minnesota law requires.
