The co-founder and chief creative officer of Guess, Paul Marciano – who also holds the role of executive chairman of Guess Inc.’s board, has voluntarily resigned from the company, according to a filing by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Here is more from that filing.
“Allegations against Mr. Marciano included claims of inappropriate comments and texts, and unwanted advances including kissing and groping. Investigators interviewed more than 40 people and reviewed approximately 1.5 million pages of documents, including emails, human resources and legal department files, social media messages, video and audio recordings, photographs, travel itineraries, calendar entries, agreements, invoices and financial records.”
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The filing continued, “Many of the allegations could not be corroborated. In some cases, no conclusion could be reached because the individuals either declined to be interviewed or provided insufficient information to the investigators. And, in other cases, the investigation found that credible accounts were given by both sides. The investigation found that on certain occasions Mr. Marciano exercised poor judgment in his communications with models and photographers and in placing himself in situations in which plausible allegations of improper conduct could, and did, arise.”
If you recall, in late January, model Kate Upton – who had worked with Guess and Marciano on several occasions – took to social media to call out Marciano. She first took to Twitter and then posted an image of that tweet, along with the following caption on Instagram.
“He shouldn’t be allowed to use his power in the industry to sexually and emotionally harass women #metoo”
Marciano spoke with TMZ at the time and thought there may have been some ill feelings between them, as Guess cut ties with the model after she began showing up to set after late nights “looking terrible”.
We will have to stay tuned for any other updates.
