In March 2016, Louis Dowler and other Jennifer’s Way Bakery investors filed a $43 million lawsuit against Esposito. According the New York Post, Lawrence Wenner and David Drake invested “$250,000 each” and loaned the bakery an additional $1 million to “expand the business with a commercial plant in Queens,” to open an online store.
The investors alleged Esposito was challenging to work with, and when the online store struggled financially, they claim she bad mouthed the company on her official Facebook page and refused to help secure a loan. “Esposito has instilled and promoted a groundless and downright false sense of fear that the very same products with the same recipes, coming from the same facility, that she once stood behind, are now unsafe to consume,” the lawsuit stated.
Esposito claimed the maneuver was a hostile takeover designed to push her out. It was also revealed that Esposito filed for divorce from Fowler on the grounds of “cruel and inhuman treatment.” She also claimed Dowler was all about the money and not much else. “Like he did during the short-lived marriage to me, Dowler now seems to be aligning himself with individuals he thinks could best earn him money,” she wrote in an affidavit. In 2017, Jennifer’s Way Bakery closed.
