A British billionaire being dragged into scandal over a failed chain of department stores has strong business ties to the Kardashian family.
Sir Philip Green, branded the “unacceptable face of capitalism” in the UK, has repeatedly teamed up with Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian, as well as Kendall and Kylie Jenner, to sell branded clothing ranges.
He has been highly praised – and ultimately knighted – for amassing a multi-billion dollar retail empire including Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge and TopShop, which has US stores and sells products via Nordstrom.
But now Sir Philip’s reputation has been dragged through mud after the failure of British Home Stores (BHS), a massive department store chain he owned until just over a year ago – and some could end up sticking to Kim & co.
There are now calls for investigations into Sir Philip’s stewardship of the company, and threats to strip him of his title.
Critics say that the hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends he extracted from BHS left it hurtling towards collapse, with 11,000 job losses and little hope of resurrection.
The Kardashians – veterans of many successful business alliances – threw their lot in with Sir Philip as long ago as 2012, when Kim and Kourtney brought the Kardashian Kollection to his Dorothy Perkins chain.
And the family alliance is still going strong – Kylie and Kendall are still the faces of the creatively-named Kendall + Kylie range.
The pair were modeling bikinis for the line this week, even as BHS hit the buffers in the UK, sparking a chain of recriminations.
The optics of Sir Philip’s grandiose lifestyle – which saw him recently buy a $140million superyacht – have been called into question as thousands of workers face redundancy in Britain’s bleak retail market.
But the businessman has doubled down. When confronted by the Daily Mirror tabloid over his spending habits, Sir Philip replied: “I can buy what I like with my money. It’s my money.”
He has also been criticized over his tax arrangements in the past, as his Arcadia Group holding business is based in the Monaco tax haven.
Recrimination reached fever pitch when MPs accused him of a Judas-style betrayal of BHS.
One equated his payments to a Biblical “30 pieces of silver” payoff, and said he should lose his knighthood.
Were Sir Philip to leave the inner circle of the British establishment in shame – which he may only be able to avoid with a massive payout – it would be a rare misstep for the gilded Kardashian empire.
