Ousted CEO Matze sues Parler, claims board robbed him of millions

Enlarge / Parler leadership is a bit shadowy at the moment. (credit: Pavlo Gonchar | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images)

Former Parler CEO John Matze is suing the board of the troubled social media company, alleging that funder Rebekah Mercer and board members she placed engaged in a scheme to steal his share in the company he co-founded.

"While Mercer readily acknowledged and broadly boasted... that Parler was an enterprise worth hundreds of millions of dollars, if not a billion dollars, she and others orchestrated a theft of Matze's 40 percent ownership, claiming that it could be taken from him for a mere $3.00," Matze claims in the suit (PDF).

The complaint calls the maneuvering "outlandish and arrogant theft," adding that "this scheme is epitomized by oppression, fraud, and malice, for which Matze is entitled to receive punitive damages" of at least three times the "millions he is owed in compensatory damages."

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