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Buzzfeed News reports that American Apparel has been dealing with an anonymous emailer blasting the company with pro-Dov Charney messages for the past two months. The brand's newly instated CEO, Paula Schneider, sent out a company memo addressing the anonymous emails after the latest one accused Standard General, the hedge fund with the most financial control over the company, of handling American Apparel the same way that it handled RadioShack, another one of its investments.
"As a company, we embrace free speech and social commentary by our employees," Schneider's memo, obtained by Buzzfeed, states. "That is a valued part of our culture. But today's email provides an opportunity for me to reach out to all of you. I encourage you not to be influenced by unfounded personal attacks or baseless threats about job security sent by outsiders who do not have the company's best interests at heart."
Schneider wrote that the attacks were coming from outside the company, but Buzzfeed News confirmed with the email perpetrator that he or she is an American Apparel employee (who wished to remain anonymous, for obvious reasons). The emailer, who operates under the name Team Dov and the hashtag #TeamDov, has been soliciting American Apparel employees to sign a petition declaring support for the former CEO.
"This isn't all about Dov," one of the Team Dov emails reads. "Well, it sort of is. But it's mostly about not letting American Apparel as we know today being taken over by corporate Wall Street guys who don't care about the company or the brand or the image or its employees. It's time to step up and say something about it. There are [sic] power in numbers and the more people we can get to stand up the better for all of us."