The former chief executive of WPP’s Motion Content Group (producer of “Love Is Blind” and other reality shows) is suing the advertising agency, saying he was fired for reporting allegations of improper billing practices.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Richard Foster said he repeatedly warned senior executives about the company’s alleged “kickback practices” involving “kickback-driven transactions” and was fired as “unsustainable, illegal, and a serious threat to the company.”
Foster, a 17-year veteran, previously led the media division of WPP, the producer and co-financer of “Love Island” and about 2,500 other TV shows around the world. The division was rebranded to GroupM Motion Entertainment in North America in 2023.
Foster alleged in the lawsuit that Group M leveraged “customer budgets to secure inventory deals” from media companies, including cash rebates, inventory discounts, and other financial incentives, and that these deals were not always transparent or disclosed to customers.
Over the past five years, the company “generated between $3 billion and $4 billion worth of rebate-driven transactions, of which approximately $1.5 billion to $2 billion was improperly withheld,” according to the complaint.
But instead of confronting the problem, Foster claims, executives “marginalized him and ultimately fired him and his team to cover up their own inappropriate behavior.”
WPP disputed this claim.
“The company is aware of a lawsuit filed in New York state court by a former employee who was terminated in a recent reorganization,” a WPP spokesperson said in a statement. “Although the court has not yet issued any findings regarding this allegation, we will vigorously defend ourselves.”
Foster filed a 35-page internal report in December highlighting the opportunity to create a new entertainment division, but warning that the use of kickbacks could pose “potential legal and reputational” risks to the company.
At one point, Foster claimed he told an executive that WPP and Group M were “sleepwalking to the brink, and people don’t want to hear about it.”
Foster said in January he was asked to discuss the report with Brian Lesser, Group M’s global CEO, who “expressed concerns about the legal risks associated with Group M Trading and indicated that he would be looking into the matter further.” A few days later, Mr. Foster claimed he received a text from Mr. Lesser asking him to send him a “sanitized version of the report” and asking him to “eliminate any open criticism[of GroupM Trading]as it goes against the spirit of cooperation.”
Foster ultimately said he was fired on July 10 and is seeking $100 million in damages.
“Richard Foster spent nearly two decades helping build one of the most successful media and entertainment production businesses in the world,” his attorney, William A. Brewer III, a partner at Brewer Attorneys & Counselors, said in a statement. “When he stood up for transparency and accountability at WPP, he was fired. This case will shine a light on systemic wrongdoing and the retaliation faced by executives who refuse to cooperate.”
