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Sharon Chuter, the founder of the prestige cosmetics company Uoma Beauty, has sued the brand’s new owners, MacArthur Beauty LLC and BrainTrust, alleging that the purchase of its assets in December 2023 was an unauthorised and below market value sale.
The complaint, which was filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday and has been viewed by The Business of Beauty, alleges fraudulent transfer of the business, unjust enrichment and receipt of stolen property.
The MacArthur Fund acquired Uoma Beauty’s assets in December 2023, eight months after Chuter departed from the business. In the intermediary months, the brand stopped posting on Instagram, and its stock was placed on clearance at many major retailers, while customers took to social media to complain that orders were going unfulfilled.
In the complaint, Chuter alleges that the company, which was sold to satisfy a $6.2 million loan, had been valued as high as $50 million in 2022, and that the sale of the company’s assets, facilitated by Settle, a corporate lender exercising a lien on its assets by selling them to MacArthur Beauty LLC and BrainTrust was below market value. Settle is also named in the complaint. Alleging that the deal was “irregular and not commercially reasonable”, the complaint says that Chuter had a controlling interest in the company at the time, and describes the deal as a “private sale” at an unreasonable price.
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Chuter is seeking an unspecified amount of damages.
Representatives for MacArthur Beauty LLC, Settle and BrainTrust did not respond to requests for comment.
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