Bianca, beauty brand land in big-buck lawsuit
It could get ugly for Boston beauty mogul and former WCVB-TV anchor Bianca de la Garza’s brand Lucky Gal Productions.
A lawsuit filed this month in Suffolk Superior Court alleges her boyfriend embezzled millions from a Middleboro shoe company to fund the Lucky Gal brand.
Lawyers for Alden Shoe Company are accusing their former vice president and chief financial officer Richard Hajjar of stealing $27 million from the company between 2014 and 2019 — $15 million of which they allege he funneled directly into the business accounts of de la Garza.
The company asserts “Ms. de la Garza knew or should have known that Mr. Hajjar did not have millions of dollars” and was obtained illegally, yet “nevertheless accepted” the cash.
Besides the nearly $12 million in stolen cash wired directly to de la Garza and the Lucky Gal company, Hajjar purchased a million-dollar New York City co-op for the former TV darling using company money, the suit alleges.
Other gifts included a MercedesBenz, a $60,000 diamond bracelet, a $158,000 diamond ring, diamond earrings, designer handbags, designer clothing and other luxury goods all allegedly paid for with stolen money, the suit claims.
Hajjar also provided his personal credit card to a personal shopper at Neiman Marcus where de la Garza “freely” spent hundreds of thousands of dollars every month, according to the lawsuit.
In what Alden’s lawyers described as unenforceable legal agreements, de la Garza gave Hajjar a stake in her business ventures and committed to paying back some of the funds she received from Hajjar, but the agreements provided no details on when or how that would happen.
De la Garza hasn’t paid back any of the money to date and her company, Lucky Gal Productions, has never turned a profit, according to the court filing.
Hajjar was already indebted to Alden for millions of dollars when he began to “lavish gifts” upon de la Garza, court documents say.
Hajjar and de la Garza met in 2012 when she was a well-known television anchor and the two quickly became “close friends,” according to court documents.
Hajjar had been a trusted employee of the 136-year-old Middleboro shoemaker for 30 years when the company discovered in October 2019 that its CFO had reportedly been embezzling cash for “many years,” court documents said.
The money trail quickly led back to de la Garza and the company last November sent a letter demanding she return the misappropriated funds. Lawyers for de la Garza responded, saying she would put any remaining money from Hajjar into a trust, but has yet to do so.
Neither Hajjar nor de la Garza returned Herald requests for comment.