Investor seizes control of Ethan Allen after alleging director had used biopharma company as personal piggy bank
An activist investor seized control of Ethan Allen’s board on Wednesday after alleging that a board director had previously used a biopharmaceutical company she previously headed as her own “personal piggy bank,” according to court filings.Doug Bergeron launched a proxy battle in August with a 5.2% stake in the struggling upscale furniture company with the goal of taking control of its five board seats and naming a new chief executive.The former CEO of Verifone won three seats at the company’s shareholder meeting on Wednesday in Danbury, Conn., including the one held by — Cynthia Ekberg Tsai — who faced serious allegations by a past employer that were not disclosed to shareholders, Bergeron alleged based on court filings from 2013.“The research we dug up played a role,” Bergeron told The Post regarding the shareholder vote.“But the election was driven by lots of bad performance and an entrenched board and management.”Tsai, a director since 2021, was chairman and CEO of biopharma company Viropro from 2012 to 2014.
She was fired and sued by the company 12 years ago, according to a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court.Viropro claimed that “destroyed records” prevented it from accounting for $491,000 in funds that “it is alleged Tsai spent for her own purposes,” according to court filings.Tsai has previously vigorously denied these allegations.Among the allegations were that Tsai charged Viropro for “spa visits during which she purchased massage, manicure and pedicure treatments on a weekend,” according to the suit.She “similarly defrauded Viropro into reimbursing her for a trip to the Vatican she took with her mother in April 2013…while Viropro struggled to pay its most basic bills,” the complaint alleges.“Tsai has also regularly drained Viropro’s limited resources with unnecessary frequent travel to Malaysia for long periods of time every few months,” the lawsuit claims.The case was eventually settled but prior to...