- Ross Levinsohn ran the Arena Group, which published Sports Illustrated, and was fired by its new owner.
- He says he objected to new owner Manoj Bhargava's "disastrous plan" to put out a false press release.
- Levinsohn said he improved the company's finances and hasn't been told why he was fired.
The former CEO of the Arena Group, the struggling media company that recently lost the license to publish Sports Illustrated, said in a new lawsuit that his former employer owes him more than $20 million.
Ross Levinsohn, who was fired as CEO in December and resigned from the company's board in January, says he still hasn't been told why he was fired and hasn't been paid the severance he's owed. He said new owner, 5-Hour Energy drink founder Manoj Bhargava, is hurting the company and creating legal problems.
Shortly after taking over, Levinsohn said, Bhargava tried to force through a press release that would have called him the "largest shareholder in Sports Illustrated" — a claim Levinsohn says is false and could have created legal issues, since the Arena Group only licensed the SI brand and never owned it.
Later, Levinsohn claimed, one of Bhargava's representatives on the board, Cavitt Randall, threatened to "fire the entire union," a move that the complaint says would have violated US labor laws.
"No one from the board said a word — no objection, discussion, or even a single question was posed about a plan that would result in seismic change for Sports Illustrated, and one that could easily lead to the loss of Arena's marquee brand," Levinsohn's lawyers wrote.
The Arena Group, which until recently published SI and still owns brands like Men's Journal and Parade, was on the path to profitability, Levinsohn claimed. (Arena Group faced harsh criticism over its use of AI-generated content under Levinsohn's leadership.)
Its stock traded above $20 a share at points in 2020 and 2021, but it traded below $5 for most of the last year and closed at $1.28 a share on Friday.
Bhargava has said the Arena Group was in worse financial condition than he realized and said he had to fire Levinsohn and others and invest more money to right the ship.
A spokesman for Bhargava and the Arena Group, Steve Janisse, said he couldn't immediately comment.
But Levinsohn sought to cast doubt on those claims, saying in his lawsuit that FTI consultants and Bhargava's associates Randall and Chris Fowler conducted "five months of due diligence."
Levinsohn's lawsuit repeats claims that have been reported in recent months, including that Bhargava flew Sports Illustrated Swimsuit models on a private jet and suggested they pitch 5-Hour Energy and wear jewelry from another one of his companies.
The lawsuit also included details about a December 6 meeting where Bhargava's remarks about media bias and "useless" employees confused and alienated many Arena Group staffers.
The lawsuit cites Business Insider's coverage of that call, alleging erroneously that a BI reporter was listening in as it happened. BI's previous coverage of Bhargava and Arena Group was based on interviews and documents.