Former Kro Employee Speaks Out

Yesterday we noted the travails of Olaf Kristoffer "The Kro" Bauer at his own pizza restaurant - the famous Kro's Nest - over the weekend. The Global Times carried a detailed report claiming Kro was assaulted by his business partner Yuan Jie, after staff had been told Kro was no longer involved with the business. Now the former general manager of The Kro's Nest, Damjan DeNoble, has posted a long article reflecting on the situation and the breakdown in the business partners' relationship, which it seems has been a long time coming.

DeNoble's article is a long one, but features some serious allegations:

"Today Kro finds him­self in a posi­tion where he may never see a dime of the many mil­lions of ren­menbi his restau­rants have accrued over a five year period. Kro is closer to broke than kept, think­ing about mov­ing back in with his Chi­nese par­ents - his sec­ond mother and father - and his lawyers are work­ing this case pro-bono, unless any money is actu­ally recovered.

By con­trast, today Kro’s for­mer part­ner, Yuan Jie (袁捷), who always insisted that Kro had, in fact, at least three fathers, because to him, too, Kro was like a son, has ten mil­lion RMB sit­ting in a bank account. It’s a joint bank account Yuan­Jie keeps with his wife, a China Revlon exec­u­tive. It’s ten mil­lion RMB he’s not sup­posed to have, because the account­ing books his wife’s for­mer employee turned Kro’s Nest accoun­tant, Zhang Yan (张妍), kept and then showed to Kro say that this money does not exist. Those account­ing books, indeed, say that the Kro’s Nest is los­ing money, and has been for more than a year now, even though this past Novem­ber the rent on the biggest of the three Kro’s Nest restau­rants fell by more than a half, an arrange­ment that Kro nego­ti­ated with­out Yuan Jie’s help."

Of course DeNoble's musing only present one side of the story, but there seems little doubt the situation is ugly to say the least. DeNoble's full article can be read on his blog.

More details as they come to hand.