For Millennials. By Millennials.
Fans of Tati Westbrook were waiting for her to come back to her YouTube channel or to share some new makeup product launches. But it seems like they would have to wait a bit longer. Tati is currently being sued by her business partner of Halo Beauty, Clark Swanson.
Why is Tati Westbrook being sued by Clark Swanson?
In a leaked legal document of the lawsuit, it was stated that Tati Westbrook and her husband have committed some kind of fraud. As per E!, it was for “breach of contract, gross negligence, and fraudulent inducement”.
When Tati Westbrook was coming up with the idea of Halo Beauty, she partnered up with her husband’s old friend Clark Swanson.
Clark Swanson is a businessman who is known to have made start-up businesses successful. Initially, Halo Beauty was just going to be about Tati’s vitamin products. The shares were going to be split between the Westbrooks and Swanson 50/50.
However, Tati Westbrook was not happy with that split and wanted her split to be 2/3 (meaning her to have more control over her company). She pitched the idea to Clark Swanson by stating that Halo Beauty was going to be a company that was not just going to be about vitamins.
“give them two-thirds of the business and, in exchange, the Westbrooks would commit to use Halo Beauty as Ms. Westbrook’s umbrella brand for all her beauty launches—cosmetics, skincare, fragrance, all of Tati Westbrook’s beauty products. Mr. Swanson agreed to these terms.”
Tati wanted to have more control over the company and not just be the spokesperson. Swanson ended up agreeing.
Moreover, Swanson also adds in the legal document that Tati Westbrook was pretty confident in her brand becoming a success because she was an influencer and had a loyal following:
“Ms. Westbrook claimed that the product did not matter, she could still sell a ‘s–t product’ to her loyal followers.”
Furthermore, Tati Westbrook also told Clark Swanson that she could have her famous friends in the beauty world (Manny Mua, Laura Lee, Jeffree Star, and James Charles) to promote her products. She even told him about Star not taking lucrative offers from Halo Beauty’s vitamin rival company, Sugar Bear Hair.
However, things started to take a turn when James Charles X Tati Westbrook feud happened
We all remember this as the major scandal in the beauty world. The end of a long friendship between James Charles and Tati Westbrook.
It happened when James Charles ended up promoting Sugar Bear Hair vitamins on his social media because he needed to get VIP tickets to Coachella in 2019.
That led to Tati feeling hurt and expressing that hurt on her Instagram Live. But later she made a YouTube video ‘Bye Sister’ in May 2019. In it, she not only talked about how she was betrayed by James when he promoted Halo Beauty’s rival brand. But also alleged that James Charles manipulates and preys on straight men into having se*ual relations with him:
“Oh my god, you tried to trick a straight man into thinking he’s gay, yet again. And somehow, you’re the victim. It’s really disgusting to manipulate someone’s sexuality especially when they’re emerging into adulthood and don’t quite have everything figured out. You are using your fame, your power, your money to play with people’s emotions. You’re threatening to ruin them, you’re threatening to embarrass them, and you’re doing that to have them behave se*ually in your favor, even if they’re straight, and you know what? That’s not okay.”
James Charles responded and denied all of the allegations and said he would never do that.
Later on this year, Tati Westbrook took back what she said in a new video ‘Breaking My Silence’. In it, she accused Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson of pumping her of lies against Charles. James Charles and Tati Westbrook also seemed to have reconciled their friendship.
But getting back to the topic, the Halo Beauty company.
How did Tati Westbrook break the agreement?
Clark Swanson shared in the documents that he had tried expanding the Halo Beauty company by adding beauty products in the mix. Though, Tati and James Westbrook both meddled in a way that prevented Swanson from growing the Halo Beauty business.
She ended up releasing makeup products, under a different company name altogether. Her fans would know about her beauty brand ‘Tati Beauty’ where she released an eyeshadow palette and re-usable beauty blenders.
Swanson states that he had no idea about this and James and Tati Westbrook kept this information from him. Tati Beauty products were manufactured by Seed Beauty.
Moreover, Tati and James Westbrook were also putting in extra products in Tati Beauty such as perfumes and cosmetic brands. All of this was happening without Clark Swanson knowing about it.
In the legal documents, Swanson states directly to James Westbrook:
“Tati Fragrance is a product line that we contemplated when we formed Halo and again when I gave you and Tati the controlling interest in the business. Even if you are right that Tati Fragrance could be good for Halo, there is no way it is better for Halo than having Halo own and operate the Fragrance piece of the business. As an officer/member/owner of Halo, I don’t think that any of us can in good faith claim that any other course of action would be in the best interests of Halo. Please reconsider in light of Tati and your obligations to Halo.”
Clark Swanson is requesting to take Tati and James Westbrook to trial and he is also seeking damages.
Tati Westbrook’s lawyer has responded
The Glamlifeguru, Tati Westbrook, has yet to address everything. But her lawyer has issued a statement. Tati’s lawyer, Douglas Fuchs shares:
“Clark Swanson’s lawsuit is meritless… his absurd claim that Tati Westbrook granted him one-third of her name, image, and likeness for all time in exchange for a modest initial capital contribution. Swanson’s claim is not only baseless, it is offensive and defies common sense. This is particularly true given that Swanson has received millions in profit distributions from Halo Beauty, almost exclusively due to the Westbrooks’ efforts. Tati and James will vigorously defend this lawsuit and are confident that the truth will come out and they will prevail.”
We’ll keep you updated on what happens next.