TOMMY Mallet's former business partner Evren Ozka has spoken out for the first time about their bitter feud, saying "I am the victim and so is my company".
Mallett London has taken the footwear world by storm over the last nine years - they built the firm together from scratch in 2015, working from Evren's premises.
Now the business owner has said the former Towie star wanted to close the shutters on the fashion firm that they created - which would have left everyone out of a job.
Evren spoke to The Sun in an attempt to "set the record straight" after seeing Tommy's social media videos slamming him and Mallet London.
Tommy said he was owed money and had been in a "toxic relationship".
He said his family's money and "all my kids' money for the future is tied up in the company".
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Evren, who is also a dad, has responded and said: "I'm the victim and so is my company. There was litigation involved and me and my company won.
"He said 'they owe me money', that's not true. During the case all details were looked at and they decided we were right and what he did was ethically wrong and legally we won.
"The company, since Tommy left, has done really well so we'll continue to focus on that."
Evren has no plans to change the name of the popular footwear brand, adding: "I think it's a great name and I don't want to change it.
"We founded the company together, and we used my premises for the first year of business to set it up. I invested all of the capital for the business to start."
Asked why they fell out, Evren continued: "One minute, he said 'I'm leaving for personal reasons' and then two weeks later he announced a competing brand.
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"He wanted to close the company down, so that it didnt compete with his new brand.
"This would have meant job losses for everybody."
Tommy resigned from his position as Director of the luxury brand on 31 October 2023. On the same day, Christopher Stephenson re-joined as a Director, a role he previously resigned from.
The Sun has seen emails from Tommy to Evren confirming the reality star attempted to "wind down" Mallet London a month later.
He still has shares in the company which are locked in.
Immediately departing Mallet London Tommy announced his new venture, CTRNE.
But an injunction, seen by The Sun, was issued to protect Mallet London and block CTRNE from trading in Harrods and Selfridges.
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Tommy said: "I’m fully starting from scratch, something I never thought I’d have to do, everything I built, all of the late nights and early mornings and time away from my family give me one thing – knowledge, it’s time to go out and do what I originally set out to do…Let’s get it, I’m coming for it all!"
The Sun has contacted Tommy for comment.
