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Today’s the kind of day being a YouTube drama attorney is useful...just reviewing the statement of claim filed against Tati Westbrook, Halo Beauty and her husband...stay tuned for my legalese translation...
Claim: fraud, negligence, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing - basically this plaintiff is throwing the kitchen sink at Tati, James, Tati Beauty & Halo Beauty, civil litigation-wise. In other words, dude is BIG MAD.
OK so dude (he has a name, I’ll just call him dude because he’s not a public figure - a longtime friend of James) started Halo Beauty with J & T. Originally he owned 50%, they owned 50%.
Dude alleges that Halo Beauty was originally just supposed to be vitamins, but T & J came to him and said they wanted Halo to be the umbrella brand to launch Tati’s cosmetics and skincare lines as well.
According to dude, Tati said she needed to be seen as a major player in the company in order to market Halo well and she and James asked that the 50/50 split be re-jigged so Dude, James & Tati each got 1/3...so James & Tati together had 2/3, or a majority stake.
Dude agreed, especially when (he says) Tati told him that L’Oreal had offered Jafar Star $500M@for his company, and when James (he says) told him they could build Halo up to a valuation of $3B, easy-peasy.
Dude says Tati namedropped Jafar, Manny, Laura Lee and James Charles and said she could get all of them to endorse Halo. So he says, on the basis of that, he agreed to basically give up control of the company to T & J by taking the reduced 1/3 stake. Trading control for $$$$$
Of course, dude is saying that he developed all the vitamins that were part of the original line and says he has the patents to prove he developed key components of the vitamins - conveniently, the very components that he says made the vitamins a success.
Incidentally, in a very petty footnote in the complaint, dude alleges that J & T tried to force him to put Tati’s name on the patent and he has to get them on a call with his attorneys to explain why claiming to invent something you didn’t is illegal.
Interesting tea: Dude claims each of its owners made a million bucks off of Halo in their first year, and tripled that in their second year. Whoa. I didn’t know so many of y’all liked vitamins so much.
Dude says after the vitamin launch he started throwing himself into learning about makeup product development but James & Tati were never interested in what he was doing and never came along to meetings.
In fact dude says they actually forbade him with meeting with Michelle Phan to discuss collaborating on launching products in China (whaaat?!)
Dude says James and Tati basically told him to chill the fuck out and let Tati lead any makeup development talks and so he stopped, calling James his best friend in an email reply (uh oh. Never do business with friends, kids)
Dude then says that James took him to lunch at Barney’s to break up with him and told him that he and Tati would be working with another company on the launch of her palette because it had been an offer too good to refuse.
Dude was obviously not happy with this, didn’t understand why Halo couldn’t be cut in on the deal, and protested right up to the launch of Tati’s palette. He says that he tried to talk to Tati but James wouldn’t let him because of her “mental state” leading up to the launch.
I guess because he’s a sucker for punishment but Dude pushed ahead in trying to launch Halo Beauty skincare, including a setting spray and primer, but says James and Tati refused to play ball and wouldn’t approve samples, basically delaying launch of the products.
Instead he says they announced Tati Fragrance - again, Dude was like “and why isn’t this going to be a Halo product?” Dude says that James said Tati wanted to “do something on her own” and had “very little to do with the creation and launch of Tati Beauty.” 
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Just for emphasis: Dude alleges that James and Tati has little to do with the formulas, design, publicity or launch of Tati Beauty.
Basically, Dude is saying that he didn’t make the billions James promised him, because after the vitamin launch James and Tati focused on other business lines that he says were supposed to be Halo lines, but that they did under other companies, to cut him out.
If that’s true, it would be a breach of Tati and James’ fiduciary duties as directors and owners of Halo, to choose their own financial interests over those of Halo.
He’s also saying that James and Tati were negligent in delaying and interfering with the development or launch of any new Halo products and that they took “excessive” money from the company without getting the proper authorizations to do so.
Just for good measure, Dude is alleging that James and Tati were so negligent, and their actions so unreasonable with respect to Halo, they weren’t just negligent, but grossly negligent.
He also says that made a fraudulent misrepresentation to him to get him to trade his 50% share for a 33% share and that they never intended to follow through (this one is baaaaaaad you guys if proven true)
Anyhoo, there are a lot more allegations but basically Dude’s complaint comes down to: James and Tati lied, he upheld his part of the bargain and made James and Tati rich, and they screwed him and Halo out of further opportunities and profits.
Some particularly inflammatory allegations: Dude says earlier this month James liquidated all the cash out of Halo Beauty (This would have been done to devalue the company so there would be nothing for Dude to attempt to gain from Halo in this case).
Dude says James was at times “profane” with him on the phone and in text messages, and hung up on him on several occasions. It doesn’t sound like he ever got past James to talk to Tati.
I can’t wait to read James and Tati’s response to this complaint! Remember, these are all just allegations against James and Tati at this point, nothing’s been proven in court. I’m sure their response will be very damning with respect to this dude.
