It wasn’t the summer of love in the Manhattan headquarters of the upscale Haute Hippie fashion label.
Designer Trish Wescoat-Pound, whose 1960s-inspired dresses retail for $800, forced an underling to buy luxury goods for her with the company credit card and then take the fall when the alleged scam was discovered, according to the lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday.
Wescoat-Pound’s husband and business partner, Jesse Cole, also allegedly harassed the employee, Andrew Morrison, with anti-gay text messages and threatened to toss him off the roof of the firm’s Midtown office last July.
“Andrew was unlawfully discriminated against and used as a scapegoat to hide Wescoat-Pound’s extravagant lifestyle,” said his lawyer, Matthew Blit.
Haute Hippie called Morrison “disgruntled” and said he was fired because he “stole tens of thousands of dollars from the company.”