Brandon Truaxe, founder of skincare brand Deciem and cult budget range The Ordinary, has taken to Instagram to claim that he is closing down his company until further notice due to alleged "major criminal activity."
In the emotional video, Brandon begs viewers to "please take me seriously," as he films from the back of a car with two men who he claims to be Deciem colleagues.
"Hi everyone, I'm Brandon Truaxe, founder of Deciem. This is the final post of Deceim, which we will shut down all operations until further notice, which will be about two months.
"Almost everyone at Deciem has been involved in major criminal activity, which includes financial crimes and much other. You have no idea what a solider I've been for more than 13 years.
"I've been made fun of, as a porn actor, and as a fucking drug dealer, and everything, for thirteen years and it's all ending now."
The video—which was posted in the brand's main Instagram account—was accompanied by a lengthy, non-sensical, and incoherent caption. In it, Brandon threatens an entire list of people—including several high profile members of the beauty industry, and Hollywood celebrities such as Brad Pitt and Stephen Spielberg—with unsubstantiated claims, and "criminal prosecution."
The wildly successful Toronto-based skincare company was founded in 2013, with the tagline "The abnormal beauty company."
After working for a cosmetics company as a computer scientist, Brandon decided to branch out into skincare, as he was frustrated by the lack of transparency in the beauty industry.
In 2017, the company launched The Ordinary, a range of affordable skincare, which revolutionized the beauty industry, causing beauty giant Estée Lauder to make a minority investment in the company.
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This article originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.com/uk. Minor edits have been made by the Cosmo.ph editors.