A lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, hears a former project manager and property caretaker for Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, highlight that Ye fired him after he refused to remove all of the windows and electricity from his Malibu home.
According to media reports, the lawsuit notes that when Ye allegedly insisted that Tony Saxon move large generators into the home, he refused, and Ye ordered him to “get the hell out” and told him he would be “considered an enemy if he did not comply,” according to the complaint, which Saxon’s law firm provided to NBC News.
“When Plaintiff refused to engage in unlawful conduct or to engage in activity that would further cause him physical injury, Mr. Ye responded: ‘If you don’t do what I say, you’re not going to work for me, I’m not gonna be your friend anymore and you’ll just see me on TV,’” the suit says, adding that Saxon told him he doesn’t watch TV.
Ye fired Saxon, who also worked for him as a security guard and caretaker at the property, on November 5th, 2021, for not complying with his “dangerous” requests, the suit says.
Saxon, who worked for Ye for roughly two months, alleged that Ye promised to pay him $20,000 per week but made only two payments — one to cover Saxon’s weekly salary and another for the project’s budget, according to the suit. “I always had his best interest in mind as a friend,” Saxon said in an interview, comparing the events that led to his firing, to stopping a friend from driving drunk “They get really mad at you that you overstepped your boundaries, but still, they could have gotten really hurt,” he said.
The lawsuit alleges violations of multiple labor codes, including dangerous working conditions, unpaid wages and wrongful retaliatory termination.
