The glamorous designer of Meghan Markle’s £56,000 engagement dress has been accused of squandering her company’s cash on luxury lingerie and costly hair-salon appointments before its collapse.
Documents released by the High Court detail extraordinary new claims that Australians Tamara Ralph and her ex-business partner Michael Russo ‘personally enriched themselves’ before their fashion label went to the wall in March.
Ralph & Russo was renowned for designing stunning haute couture gowns for stars including Gwyneth Paltrow and Kylie Minogue.
Ms Ralph says her director’s loans were not used to extract money out of the company but as a ‘proper accounting mechanism’. She said she has not been given enough details about the lingerie spending to be able to respond
But earlier this year The Mail on Sunday revealed how the pair had been accused of plundering the fashion house to fund jet-set lifestyles.
Ms Ralph, who is being sued by the company via its administrators for £20.8 million in damages, has strenuously denied the allegations. Now, in newly released legal papers submitted by the company, it is claimed that:
Ms Ralph spent more than £300 of company cash on luxury lingerie at Agent Provocateur in Paris and £130 on an eyelash treatment; More than £1,500 was spent on ‘weekly blow-drys’ for Ms Ralph at the fashionable Larry King hair salon in South Kensington, London, charged to a company credit card; Two of the fashion label’s bosses refused to pay a £15,000 bill for a stay by Ms Ralph at a five-star hotel – prompting her to claim they were discriminating against her because she was pregnant; Ms Ralph complained that her £225,000 salary was ‘extremely low’ for someone in her position. Ms Ralph and Mr Russo won acclaim in December 2017 for designing the diaphanous gown worn by Meghan Markle for her engagement. Less than four years later, the firm collapsed, owing £23 million to creditors and the taxman.In a witness statement, Paul Appleton, a company administrator, blamed Ms Ralph and Mr Russo for the collapse, adding: ‘The founder directors have personally enriched themselves beyond their contractual entitlements.’
Ms Ralph rejects the allegations and says the cash flow
