According to the New York Superior Court, Rowen Seibel was “not a credible witness.” Page Six reports that judge Melissa Crane sided with Gordon Ramsay, ordering Seibel to cough up $1.6 million in damages, along with 50-70% of Ramsay’s legal fees, totaling roughly $4.5 million.
A spokesperson for the celebrity chef told the outlet that the court found that Seibel “fabricated evidence” regarding “kickbacks,” likely to cover up for the fact that he was “incompetent in managing” the business. They also said that Ramsay had cut ties with Seibel upon finding out the truth, and was not “surprised by the ruling.”
It’s worth noting that Ramsay is no stranger to lawsuits, and this is not the first case that involved The Fat Cow. In 2013, ABC News reported that four former employees filed a class-action lawsuit for unpaid wages. They claimed they were forced to work 8-hour shifts without a break, sometimes below minimum age, and weren’t even granted any overtime pay. “There were handwritten paychecks sometimes. There was… no accounting at all,” the attorney who represented the employees said. However, it’s unclear whether or not Ramsay was to blame. A former hostess of the restaurant said that issues like these hardly ever reached him. “Nothing was ever told to him,” she said. “We couldn’t tell him anything. He could not know anything.”
Nicki
