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The plot has thickened in the Tory Burch legal battle — and it’s starting to read like a spy novel.
The flaxen-haired designer has accused ex-husband Chris Burch of spying on her company while establishing a rival retailer — and with secretly hooking up with a Russian-born billionaire who placed an alleged double agent on her company’s board.
Chris Burch — who accused the Tory Burch label in an October lawsuit of blocking efforts to sell his 28 percent stake in the company for upward of $600 million — had “hundreds of communications . . . with Tory Burch employees in which he badgered them for, and received, inside information,” Tory Burch alleges in court papers filed late Monday.
Chris Burch had a secret “financial relationship” with billionaire investor Len Blavatnik — despite the fact that Blavatnik is also a big investor in Tory Burch and controls a seat on its board, the papers allege.
A spokesman for Tory Burch declined to comment on the explosive suit filed in Delaware Chancery Court.
Neither Chris Burch nor Blavatnik responded to requests for comment.
Chris and Tory Burch have been squabbling since last fall, when Chris Burch opened the first C. Wonder store in SoHo.
Tory Burch claims she was flabbergasted to see the same candy-colored themes found in her boutiques.
Some Tory Burch directors called for a probe into a potential conflict of interest for Chris Burch, who was serving as co-chairman at the time.
In response, however, Blavatnik’s board designee, Jorg Mohaupt, told fellow directors that “it was his opinion that other members of the board were creating false allegations for the purpose of forcing Mr. Burch off the board,” according to court papers.
“But when pressed to disclose the extent of the now admitted financial relationship between Mr. Blavatnik and Mr. Burch, plaintiffs refused,” according to this week’s allegations.
— with Claire Atkinson