Estee Lauder removes Brandon Truaxe from Deciem. The founder of Deciem, Brandon Truaxe, has been ousted from his role as the company’s CEO by a judge after months of erratic behaviour.

The Ontario judge sided with beauty brand Estee Lauder, who are a minor investor in Deciem, to have Truaxe removed from his post.

The move comes after his shock announcement that Deciem is shutting down.

The company is best known for their skincare line, The Ordinary.

Estee Lauder asked that Truaxe be dismissed and be replaced by Deciem’s co-CEO, Nicola Kilner, on an interim basis.

They also requested that Truaxe be removed from the company’s board of directors, barred him from hiring and firing employees and issue statements on the company’s social media accounts.

Truaxe posted a video on Instagram, announcing that Deciem was shutting down earlier this week. In the video, he speaks of ‘criminal activity’, next to two men he says are colleagues.

He begins by saying: “Hi everyone, I am Brandon Truaxe, founder of Deciem. This is the final post of Deciem. We will shut down all operations until further notice. We have two months. Please take me seriously.”

The video is accompanied by a long caption, in which he mentions celebrities including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Ben Affleck, and tags Donald Trump, Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg.

In their application, Estee Lauder said that they wanted to oust Truaxe because of the ‘outrageous, disturbing, defamatory, and/or offensive posts’ he posted on social media over the last year that ‘harmed’ the business and its reputation.