Louise Blouin, once billed as one of the wealthiest women in Britain, appears to be struggling to pay bills at home and at work.
Blouin, owner of a mini publishing empire that includes Art + Auction, Modern Painters, and the Web site artinfo.com, also owns homes in London, Manhattan, Southampton and Switzerland. And she apparently has a nasty habit of stiffing employees — or at least stretching out payments until they scream or file lawsuits.
Last week, about two dozen writers banded together under the acronym WAAANKAA (Writers Angry At Artinfo Not Kidding Around Anymore) to demand payments of about $18,000.
Ben Hartley, president of global commmunications for Blouin’s companies, said that “a good number” of the writers have been paid since the Media Ink story broke.
Caroline Ryder, who is owed $700 and helped form the group, disputes that. “We are all still waiting to get paid,” she said. Now, a slew of lawsuits pending against Blouin or her publishing concerns has come to light claiming that she has rung up a half-million dollars or more in unpaid bills.
The suits filed in New York State Supreme Court against her companies — known as LTB Holdings, LTB Media and Louise Blouin Media over the past several years — include plaintiffs ranging from her landlord to her butler.
The most serious may come from her landlord, Creekridge Capital, which claimed in a suit filed in May that the art publishing company owed more than $44,000 in back rent. Hartley said Blouin has settled, but the attorney for the landlord did not return a call and the case is still listed as pending.
Steven Kaufman, a former credit manager for Louise Blouin Media, says he quit after only eight days on the job earlier this year. He said that the company, which has ad revenues of $7 million to $8 million a year, is so desperate for ads that it will accept them from anyone, with no credit checks.
That has created problems because a lot of advertisers can’t or won’t pay for ads that have already run, he said.
He said the company has already written off over $360,000 this year and turned it over to a collection agency. When he asked for a template to recoup some of the uncollected funds, he said company officers turned over notices that other creditors were sending demanding payment.
Jeffrey Bandman said he was offered $10,000 to create the matrix for the Art Sales Index to track the commerical art market. Part of the deal was that he would get a percentage of the proceeds when the project launched. But the cash-strapped company never rolled out the index. Instead, it sent Bandman a notice that his services were no longer needed.
He sued earlier this year in a suit that is still pending.
Another lawsuit is from a placement agency that found a butler for Blouin’s sprawling home on tony Gin Lane in Southampton. The butler quit after two months. Calendar Group of Westport, Conn., claimed in a lawsuit filed in 2008 that it was owed $20,000 for placing the butler in the $100,000-a-year job. Calendar President Steven Laitmon eventually dropped the suit because it was not cost-effective.
Meanwhile, lawyers from Arzanne Interiors, a Manhattan design firm that Blouin hired to completely renovate the interior of her estate for $750,000, are scheduled to sit down with her lawyers today to try and reach a settlement in a 2008lawsuit over an unpaid invoice of $192,426. In counterclaims, Blouin maintains that some work was poorly done and she does not owe the designers money.
Hartley said it is a private matter, and had no comment.
In yet another suit, former Vice-President of Finance Steve Tobengauz, claims he is owed $85,000 in severance pay. Hartley said the matter has since been settled.
Hartley insisted there is light at the end of the tunnel. “We have a new management team in place and we’re working to resolve all our outstanding issues.”
Newsweek 3
The Washington Post and CEO Donald Graham could reveal a winner in the Newsweek derby as early as next week. At least three suitors are still vying for the property. Sidney Harman is still in the hunt, along with Fred Drasner and partners and Avenue Capital. TV Guide owner OpenGate Capital appears to be fading.
Some are raising questions about the role that Harm an’s wife, California Dem ocratic Congressman Jane Harman, and a bitter rival of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will play if her husband wins the mag.
“I think it is a flat zero,” said Harman. “I don’t tell her how to vote and she doesn’t tell me how to run my business.”
He said nobody has asked him about his wife.
Newsweek is expected to fetch more than BusinessWeek, which Bloomberg bought for $9.3 million from McGraw-Hill. cf143,8,11 kkelly@nypost.com