LIBERTY — A federal lawsuit that caught the new owners of Ideal Snacks by surprise was filed earlier this month in the Southern District of New York by seven former employees who allege that they were targets of ongoing sexual harassment and retaliation by their supervisors - and particularly the company's plant manager from 2012 through 2015.

New York City law firm LatinoJustice filed the suit on behalf of the seven plaintiffs.

The company, founded in 1997 and which houses the nearly 300,000-foot facility, was purchased by BFY (Better For You) Holdings in July 2015, months after the alleged sexual harassment occured.

The lawsuit filed in January alleges that “throughout their respective periods of employment, Plaintiffs were subjected to gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation by Defendant (Ideal Snacks) through its managers and supervisors. The suit further alleged that “the harassment was incessant - occurring on virtually a daily basis and often several times in a single day - and continuous - occurring day after day - and included offensive, sexually graphic, lewd, threatening, degrading, ridiculing, intimidating, alienating, and highly inappropriate comments and insults.”

Several of the seven women, whose identities are not revealed, allege in the suit that aside from ongoing sexual harassment, some were prevented from using the restrooms when they rebuffed requests for sex. Others allege that they were called degrading names, touched or grabbed inappropriately and interrogated about their romantic relationships and sex lives.

Marvin Javier Cardenes, 43, who started working for the company in 1997 and who was terminated just one year ago as plant manager, is mentioned throughout the complaint at the center of the allegations. Reached at his home on Sunday, Cardenes called the allegations “nonsense” and added, “I'm not going to say anything right now.” Cardenes said he has not retained an attorney.

Sandra Cuellar Oxford, who has advocated for Ideal Snacks employees over the years, said that under Cardenes “women were treated despicably. In every way, he (Cardenes) was creating that culture where women were demoralized and demeaned on a regular basis.”

Other supervisors named in the suit are Andres Malaga, Julio Morales, Manuel Malaga, Felix Malariaga and Santiago Malaga.

Zeke Aleneck, who owned Ideal Snacks until it was bought by BFY Holdings in 2015, now owns Corny Cattle Farm in Orange County's Town of Crawford. Aleneck could not be reached for comment at press time.

But the new CEO, Paul Nardone, said that after an “extensive investigation” into the allegations by law firm Goodwin Proctor, “we were unable to verify any of the allegations of sexual harassment and we reported our findings to the EEOC. ‘'

Nardone said the allegations of sexual harassment first surfaced in April 2016 when the seven former employees filed a complaint with the EEOC. Bradford J. Smith, the labor and employment law attorney from Boston-based Goodwin Procter LLP who is representing BFY, said that his firm conducted an investigation on behalf of Ideal Snacks that started in April 2016 and was completed in June 2016.

“When the charges were filed at the EEOC and they got sent to the company, they (new owners) didn't know any of these seven former employees because their employment had all ended prior to the BFY purchasing the company,” Smith said. “So we were really in the dark…we didn't know any of the players, so to speak. But we did do an investigation. We interviewed the individuals that were named. In addition, we interviewed as many of the supervisors that were not named in the complaint who had certain management authority. We did as much of an investigation as we could. We also interviewed employees who had a connection to the timeframe when allegedly these events occurred.”

Nardone added that once he was contacted by the EEOC, “we took immediate action to bring in an employment practice specialist to conduct a full investigation in which all of the former supervisors who were named in the complaint were interviewed by the investigator as well as numerous current employees who were employed at Ideal during the period of the alleged harassment between 2012 and 2015.''

The Democrat sought information from the EEOC New York office, but spokesman Michael Rojas did not return the Democrat's phone calls or emails by press time.

Judy Keenan, deputy director of the EEOC office in New York, said Monday: “Our privacy statutes won't let me talk about matters or even acknowledge a charge unless EEOC has filed a lawsuit.”

Nardone also pointed out that the employment of each of the supervisors named in the complaint ended “prior to July 1, 2015, the date when BFY purchased Ideal.” He added that only one employee identified in the complaint, Cardenes, was employed after July 1, 2015 and that his employment ended in January 2017.

“Since the company was acquired in 2015, Ideal Snacks has had a zero tolerance policy regarding any form of harassment and discrimination in the workplace,” Nardone said in a statement. “We take extensive measures to thoroughly train our managers and supervisors regarding harassment protocols and have an open door policy for employees to report any unwelcome or harassing behavior.”

BFY Holdings is comprised of Medora Snacks, LLC, which was founded in 2008 and is based in Middletown, NY, and Ideal Snacks Holding Corporation, which was founded in 1997.