Condé Nast Sues an Archipelago

Condé Nast Publications is suing the British protectorate of Turks and Caicos and its tourist board for failing to pay over $1 million for advertising appearing in 2007 and 2008 issues of W magazine, Vanity Fair, Elegant Bride, and the 2007 Fashion Rocks supplement. (WWD is also owned by Condé Nast.)

 
In a lawsuit filed Friday in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, Condé Nast is seeking to recover the unpaid sum, as well as attorney fees and interest. The filing was first reported by Cityfile.com on Friday afternoon. A spokeswoman for Condé Nast said the company would have no comment, and a U.S. Representative of Turks and Caicos' Tourist Board did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 
The ads in question were already controversial in Turks and Caicos, which had been seeking to raise its profile as a high-end Caribbean destination. (Donna Karan, Bruce Willis, and Keith Richards have homes there, and numerous luxury resorts have opened in recent years). The campaign starred then-first lady LisaRaye McCoy-Misick, an American and former television actress who this year testified in a British government inquiry that she was paid $300,000 a month to appear in and art direct the ads. McCoy-Misick’s estranged husband, Michael Misick, resigned as premier in March amid a battery of corruption charges that have already led to the suspension of self-government on the island and the return of full British control.

View the PDF of the legal complaint filed in the case >>