The bad blood between multititle mailer Hanover Direct and investors Richemont Finance and Chelsey Direct continues. In July, Hanover sued Richemont and Chelsey, maintaining that Richemont sold nearly 30 million shares of the company to Chelsey while in the possession of confidential, material nonpublic information concerning Hanover that it had received from the cataloger. The sale of the stock gave Chelsey two seats on Hanover’s board and the potential to take control of the Edgewater, NJ-based cataloger.
As a result of a July 30 hearing, Hanover agreed to the temporary registration of the shares in Chelsey’s name, pending the resolution of the litigation. But in documents it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Sept. 9, Hanover says it is still waiting for Richemont and Chelsey “to disclose or file in their respective Statements on Schedule 13D the existence of a July 2 Escrow Agreement.”
The posting is remarkable in that the language breaks from the staid and perfunctory nature of public documents. The kicker lies in the last line: Hanover ” believes that the parties’ failure to disclose and file these documents is so significant that it is filing this Current Report on Form 8-K to make sure disclosure is, in fact, made.” Ouch.