Ousted CFO in €4m legal spat with Moët Hennessy over NDA
Moët Hennessy is locked in a legal battle with its former CFO Mark Stead, with the drinks firm accusing him of breaching a non-disclosure agreement by leaking secrets for an article about his partner’s sexual misconduct allegations.
LVMH’s wine and spirits arm has accused Stead of breaching a 2024 non-disclosure agreement by leaking confidential information that allegedly was used in a La Lettre article on how Moët Hennessy dealt with a colleague’s sexual misconduct complaint.
Stead signed the NDA in July 2024, after he was ousted from the business due the reported misuse of company expenses, including a stay at a New York luxury hotel. It gave him severance but imposed strict confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses.
At a Paris hearing on Friday, Moët Hennessy’s lawyer claimed some of the details reported by the French news outlet could only have come from Stead, GuruFocus reported.
But Stead’s lawyer, Eric Charlery, denied the assertions, and said his client’s firing was a ploy. He claimed the lawsuit was retaliation for Stead’s support of former senior manager Maria Gasparovic, who filed the harassment claim.
Why were Gasparovic and Stead fired?
Gasparovic is suing the firm for €1.3m in damages and compensation, after she was dismissed from her position in June last year, four months after alerting her managers and HR department to alleged misconduct by senior colleagues, The Spirits Business reported in July.
According to Gasparovic, she was told she required “anti-seduction” training after a client of Moët Hennessy’s claimed she had tried to seduce them. Gasparovic also claimed she faced “unfounded and sexist rumours” and “acts of denigration”. Moet Hennessy said Gasparovic was let go from her job for “gross misconduct”.
Stead, who is reportedly in a relationship with Gasparovic, and allegedly accompanied her to meetings with HR to complain about her situation, was dismissed shortly after.
Now, Stead’s lawyer is asking judges to scrap the settlement, claiming it prevents whistleblowing. He is also looking to enact unfair dismissal and damages claims that could boost his demand to approximately €4 million.
‘Toxic culture’ allegations
The lawyer said that, through publicly accusing Stead and Gasparovic, Moët Hennessy destroyed his clients’ reputation, and broke the company’s own obligations under the deal.
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“Mark Stead is now a pariah,” Charlery told the tribunal. “When a company run by Bernard Arnault accuses you of blackmail, word gets around,” Claims Journal reported.
Moët Hennessy, which kicked off the dispute by suing Stead for €135,000, maintains he broke the settlement and has also filed a defamation complaint against Gasparovic.
Employees from LVMH’s wine and spirits division accused the company of a “toxic culture” and an “old boys club” mentality within its Paris HQ, according to a Financial Times report earlier this year.
Moët Hennessy strongly denied the accusations.
Legal disputes
Aside from Gasparovic, at least four other female employees at the headquarters reported bullying and harassment before leaving the group, the FT report claimed.
Three of the employees took their complaints to the employment tribunal in cases that have since been settled. Male staff have also lodged complaints with the employment tribunal.
The dispute comes as the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE unit faces a series of lawsuits while axing staff after a management shake-up.
Last month a former digital sales executive sought €1.7 million, claiming he was really fired for flagging sanctions-busting sales to Russia.
LVMH didn’t respond to a request for comment.
