The company behind the Miss America pageant has filed for bankruptcy as two top leaders within the organization feud over who is the rightful owner of the 103-year-old beauty competition.
Robin Fleming, who became president and CEO of Miss America Competition LLC last year, and real-estate developer Glenn Straub both filed documents in court earlier this year claiming to have sole ownership.
On Friday, Straub sent a chapter 11 filing to the US Bankruptcy Court in West Palm Beach, Florida, arguing that the company owes creditors $4 million, Bloomberg reported.
Fleming filed with the court Monday saying the exact opposite. According to her, the company isn’t in dire financial straits and that this a ‘bad faith’ attempt by Straub to wrest control of the pageant.
Fleming asked the court to dismiss the case on the grounds that Straub doesn’t actually own the company, which would make it impossible for him to file for bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Furthermore, Fleming accused Straub of deliberately sabotaging the upcoming 2025 Miss America contest set to kick off on January 1.
‘In approximately four weeks, thousands of people will head to Orlando, with hopeful young ladies and their families in attendance from across the country, to fulfill the chance of a lifetime to compete for the title of “Miss America,” a title recognized across America and beyond for more than 100 years,’ Fleming’s motion with the court stated.
‘The bad-faith bankruptcy filing for MAC orchestrated by Straub is designed solely to prevent the 2025 Miss America Competition from going forward and succeeding.’
The ownership dispute of Miss America is heating up between Robin Fleming, left, and Glenn Straub. Both parties filed complaints in bankruptcy court
Miss Colorado Madison Marsh is crowned the New Miss America 2024 in Orlando, Florida, on January 14, 2024
Straub argued that it was Fleming who instigated this dispute by not turning over financial information and refusing to give up operational control of the business.
A state court judge in Florida ordered Fleming in October to provide Straub access to the company’s financials and other key documents.
Fleming has said she bought Miss America’s assets through various legal entities in December 2022.
It seems that the pageant itself will be safe either way, since the court has said it can continue as scheduled while the legal battle plays out.
Straub also wrote a letter to Miss America board members and volunteers Tuesday pledging that the pageant will still happen even if he has to fund it himself, the Journal reported.
As part of a separate lawsuit, he alleged last week that Fleming is misappropriating Miss America assets to pay for her legal fees.
Robin Fleming, who became president and CEO of Miss America Competition LLC last year, and real-estate developer Glenn Straub both filed documents claiming to have sole ownership (pictured: Miss New York Nia Franklin, center, reacting after being named Miss America 2019)
Straub also said he tried to fire Fleming but she allegedly refused to leave.
‘This reckless practice is putting Miss America in financial and legal jeopardy and I will not allow this to destroy all that you and I have worked so hard to accomplish,’ Straub wrote in his letter.
‘They have forced me to take this legally proper step to [e]nsure the long term survival of the organization.’
As of May, Miss America’s board was on Fleming’s side. They voted unanimously to transfer the company’s assets to her.
Judge Erik P. Kimball will be presiding over the case and could ultimately decide who the rightful owner of the company is.
The Miss America pageant began in 1921 and was originally a beauty contest that took place on the boardwalk of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Over the decades, it expanded so that each US state and the District of Columbia hold their own local pageants. The winner of those contests are then sent to the national competition.
College student Brían Nguyen, 19, poses with other local Miss America contestants following her landmark win. The aspiring model is the first transgender woman to win a local title
In last decade, the Miss America pageant has been facing a consistent decline in viewership.
In a bid to make the event more inclusive and ‘empowering,’ the mostly female leadership got rid of the swimsuit competition in 2018.
Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News host and the winner of Miss America in 1989, was instrumental in making this happen after she became a board member. She resigned from her post in 2019.
Miss America has also become more accepting of trans people, with the first ever transgender woman winning a local title in November 2022.
Brían Nguyen, then 19 years old, won the Miss Greater Derry title in New Hampshire, sparking outrage among critics who accused the competition of going woke.
