The founder of Alex and Ani is suing her sister, alleging misuse of the family's R.I. jewelry business assets

Carolyn Rafaelian filed a lawsuit against her sister, Rebecca Rafaelian Caruolo, over a family shareholder dispute involving their decades-old Rhode Island jewelry business, Cinerama. The complaint, filed May 8 and originally brought in Newport County Superior Court in November 2025, was moved to U.S. District Court in Providence. The lawsuit alleges Caruolo used her role as majority shareholder and president to start Air & Anchor using all Cinerama assets to exclude and divest Carolyn. It claims Air & Anchor is a knock-off of Carolyn’s Alex + Ani brand and functions as Cinerama’s alter ego, using factory space, equipment, inventory, phone number, management, trade secrets, tradename, vendor relationships, goodwill, and reputation. The suit alleges Caruolo froze Carolyn out and diminished share value, and that Carolyn was never given an opportunity to participate.

"A complaint filed on May 8 alleges Rafaelian Caruolo used her position as majority shareholder and president of Cinerama, the jewelry company created by her and Rafaelian's father in 1966, "to create a new business venture using all of the assets of Cinerama ... for the sole purpose of excluding and divesting Carolyn of her interest in Cinerama.""

""Concealed from Carolyn as a mere subtenant leasing a portion of space from Cinerama to start a jewelry business, the new enterprise, Air & Anchor, is in fact a knock-off of Carolyn's Alex + Ani jewelry brand, created from the complete takeover and de facto liquidation of Cinerama and its assets," the lawsuit states. "Indeed, Air & Anchor uses all of Cinerama's factory space, equipment, inventory, phone number, management, trade secrets, tradename, vendor relationships, goodwill and reputation and is the functional alter ego of Cinerama.""

"Rafaelian Caruolo's actions are essentially "freezing out" Rafaelian from Cinerama "as well as diminishing the value of the companies' shares," the lawsuit alleges. Rafaelian, who holds about 43 percent of Cinerama's shares, was never presented with the opportunity of Air & Anchor, according to the compla"

Read at Boston.com