American Apparel fires controversial CEO

American Apparel founder Dov Charney was ousted Wednesday by the company in the wake of allegations of misconduct against him. In a statement on its website, the board said that it notified Charney of its intent to terminate his employment as president and CEO. He is expected to be fired following a 30-day period, the statement added.

John Luttrell, the company's executive vice president and chief financial officer, will step in as interim CEO. The board named Allan Mayer and David Danziger as co-chairmen to replace Charney as chairman of the board.

According to the statement, the "decision to replace Mr. Charney grew out of an ongoing investigation into alleged misconduct." "We take no joy in this, but the Board felt it was the right thing to do," said Allan Mayer,"Dov Charney created American Apparel, but the Company has grown much larger than any one individual and we are confident that its greatest days are still ahead."

Charney's tenure at American Apparel has been less than drama-free: In addition to various allegations of misconduct, AA's former CEO has faced a sex-slave lawsuit, undergone an immigration investigation, been threatened with bankruptcy, and has been long criticized for running the company's notoriously "racy" ads.

When asked in an interview with CNBC back in 2012 about the many lawsuits against him alleging inappropriate behavior, Charney said it was all par for the course: "That's also a testimony to my success, though, the fact that I'm a target for baseless lawsuits ... All the lawsuits that have been levied against me are baseless ... I'm not going to sit here and go through thousands of pages or something, but the allegations that I acted improperly at any time are completely a fiction."

According to the Los Angeles Times, a source familiar with the matter says, “[Charney]’s going to fight like hell to get this company back, but he won’t succeed."