Dov Charney Net Worth
Dov Charney net worth and salary: Dov Charney is a Canadian businessman and entrepreneur who has a net worth of $100 thousand. Dov Charney was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in January 1969. He is best known for being the founder of the American Apparel clothing line. As a Canadian teenager Charney fell in love with the United States. His first business venture as a child was selling rainwater to neighbors. He also sold newspapers in high school. He imported t-shirts from America to Canada. He dropped out of Tufts University and moved to South Carolina. His company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and he moved to Los Angeles. American Apparel moved into a downtown Los Angeles factory in 2000. In 2003 Charney opened his first retail store. He was named Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year and Apparel Magazine's Man of the Year in 2004. Charney is involved in design, manufacturing, and marketing of his business. He refused to outsource manufacturing and championed sweatshop-free fair wages. He has been sued by Woody Allen and has had sexual harassment lawsuits from ex-employees. He was dismissed as the CEO of the company in 2014 due to these legal issues. He has also been named one of the Top 100 powerful people in Southern California by the Los Angeles Times.
Loss of Wealth:
When American Apparel went public in 2007, Charney's stake was worth $480 million dollars. Later that year when the company's share price hit an all time peak of $15.5, Dov was worth $550 million and proclaiming to anyone who would listen that he was on his way to billionaire status. Unfortunately, (and probably thanks largely to his own controversies) over the next seven years, American Apparel's stock price plummeted dramatically. In 2014, the stock frequently traded for less than 50 cents per share. At that level, his personal stake sunk to an all time low of less than $18 million.
As the stock plummeted, Dov never sold a single share. In June 2014 he was fired. In July 2014, Dov handed his remaining 47.2 million shares (roughly 27% of the outstanding stock) to a hedge fund called Standard General with the goal of combining forces to reclaim control of the company. Using his 47.2 million shares as collateral, Dov received a loan from Standard General so he could buy an even larger stake in American Apparel. In December 2014, Dov announced that Standard General had double-crossed him on their deal. He further claimed that he is now worth less than $100,000 and is sleeping on a friend's couch.
