The peaceful Riverdale of Archie Comics is starting to look like the Middle East.
The family-friendly comic book company’s co-CEOs, Jonathan Goldwater and Nancy Silberkleit, have settled their bitter and bizarre court fight over control of the company — but now Goldwater’s nieces are accusing both of funny business.
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Richard Goldwater Trust beneficiaries Lisa, Summer and Taylor Goldwater charge that both the execs’ “hands are dirty” – and they should both be booted from the company.
The nieces, who own 25 percent of the company, agreed with Goldwater’s contention that Silberkleit had been cheating the company, but said that she wasn’t the only one.
The company has “two directors who have been stealing from the company, or aiding and abetting each others’ theft,” the suit says.
They suggest that Goldwater only settled with Silberkleit because he was “afraid” to proceed with his litigation for fear it would reveal that he’s been “misappropriating the assets of the company – in short that he’s been stealing!”
Archie’s lawyer did not return calls for comment. Silberkleit’s lawyer, Howard Simmons, declined to comment on the trust’s allegations, but said his client was “thrilled to have settled this extremely upsetting matter.”
The company took action to boot Silberkleit last year, charging that she harassed employees and behaved erratically, including bursting into a meeting and yelling, “Penis! Penis! Penis!”
Simmons said that under the terms of the deal, Silberkleit will keep her post as co-CEO and will be allowed back into the company’s Mamaroneck offices, where she had been banned from entering.
At a hearing yesterday, Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich denied Richard Goldwater Trust’s bid to intervene in the court fight, but noted the nieces could file a suit of their own. The lawyer for the trust, Charles Grimes, said they were reviewing their options.
dareh.gregorian@nypost.com