White Plains real estate developer Louis R. Cappelli has sued a former consultant for $1 million for allegedly disparaging him and stealing company websites and social media accounts.
Cappelli and five of his corporate entities accused Corinne Perry and Dune East LLC, of Mount Kisco, of defamation and misappropriation of confidential business information, in a complaint filed Dec. 14 in Westchester Supreme Court.
“The harm represented by this caustic and shameless conduct,” the complaint states about the alleged defamation, “is enormous and irreparable.”
Perry, who owns and operates Dune, did not reply to a message asking for her side of the story.
In 2016, The Cappelli Organization hired Perry as its marketing director and gave her access to several website accounts. Unbeknownst to the company, according to the complaint, she transferred domain hosting accounts to her name and gained exclusive control over the websites.
In June 2022, at her request, the company hired Perry and Dune East as consultants, for $6,382 a month.
This past November, the complaint states, the company discovered that Perry had been reimbursed for more than $50,000 in falsified expenses.
Perry was fired on Nov. 22, according to the complaint, and on the same day she transferred one of the Cappelli websites to herself and took steps to control all of the websites.
When Cappelli and a company attorney demanded that she relinquish access to the websites and social media accounts in a Dec. 6 telephone call, Perry allegedly demanded $50,000 in severance in exchange for the accounts.
On Dec. 13, she stated in an email to Cappelli that if she did not hear from anyone that day “I’m going to assume you don’t want the websites anymore.”
Later that day, according to the complaint, she replaced the contents on The Cappelli Organization website with a series of articles implying that the company and Cappelli are corrupt.
The new content was juxtaposed with Cappelli’s trademarks and trade names, “creating the impression … that the ultimate source or origin of this material was the company, rather than a rogue former employee looking for a payday.”
On Dec. 14, she denied stealing company property or engaging in unlawful activities, in a letter to Cappelli’s attorney, Alfred E. Donnellan.
She characterized her demand for severance as a common negotiation “to ensure a smooth and fair transition of the websites back to the company, while also addressing the financial consideration arising from my abrupt departure. … My intent was never to make any accusations against Mr. Louis Cappelli or to damage his reputation.”
Donnellan answered in a letter the following day, depicting her assertions as misstatements of facts.
“You were terminated due to the fact that you were caught stealing from the company,” he said. “No matter what label you put on the proposed agreement it was clearly an attempt by you to extort money from the company.”
The complaint notes that Perry has since removed the offensive material from the website.
She also has agreed to transfer the accounts back to the company and to cease using or divulging confidential business information, according to a stipulation entered on Dec. 21 by Supreme Court Justice Gretchen Walsh. Claims for monetary damages are still pending.
