When US companies hire outside contractors in India, it is almost universally a way to cut labor costs.
But Louise Blouin, the so-called Red Queen, has found a way to lower costs even more for her art world mini publishing empire.
Her method: promise to pay freelance writers in India, get them to write, stall for a month or two on payments and then cut them loose with no pay. Then repeat with new writers — and don’t pay them either.
Blouin publishes Modern Painters, Art + Auction and the site BlouinArtInfo.com.
Now a group of writers who claim they have been stiffed by Blouin have banded together to form an ad hoc group, “Victims of Louise Blouin in India” and are seeking to recover money in India and Britain.
One of the group’s leaders, who did not want to use his name, calls Blouin “an international fraud.”
“We have come to understand that LBM’s management have come up with this cheap trick of extracting volumes of work from poor Indian professionals every 30/40 days and fire them with an excuse of non-performance, at least 30+ recorded cases,” said an e-mail that went out to more than 100 Blouin workers worldwide.
The victims group’s leader called Blouin’s behavior “a criminal sadistic prank on our lives.”
There are at least 68 unpaid writers and other vendors in India and elsewhere with amounts owed ranging from $300 to $200,000, he complained.
“Nobody in India will work for her anymore,” he said. He said he has been in contact with writers from Germany to Japan who claim they have received similar treatment from Blouin Media.
About a dozen suits are pending in the US from vendors, former executives and writers, claiming dollar amounts of more than $425,000.
Meanwhile, the Real Deal, which tracks real estate in the city, said Blouin has recently listed her 4,551-square-foot penthouse in a Richard Meier-designed duplex on 165 Charles St. for $35 million. She purchased the property in 2005 for $20.6 million.
Blouin, a French Canadian by birth, was once listed among the 200 richest woman in Britain, where she and her ex-husband made a small fortune from starting and then selling a classified auto trader business.
Her oceanfront estate on Gin Lane in Southampton has spectacular views of the Atlantic, and behind its wrought iron gates are two pools, two tennis courts and a guest house.
“I’ve stayed in that guest house and believe me there are plenty of people in Greenwich, Conn., who would be happy to have that as their main house,” said one overnight guest.
But the guest said that much of Blouin’s wealth today appears to be tied up in non-liquid assets including the homes and pricey art work.
The cash crunch has not, however, stopped Blouin from going ahead with planning a “Leadership Summit” for her not-for-profit Louise Blouin Foundation, based in a London headquarters, which is planned for September at the Metropolitan Club, to coincide with the UN General Assembly.
Blouin did not return calls, texts or e-mails seeking comment.