Disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner has stepped down from his role as CEO of a Brooklyn-based glass company. In a lengthy LinkedI...
Disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner has stepped down from his role as CEO of a Brooklyn-based glass company.
In a lengthy LinkedIn post, the convicted sex offender said his company IceStone is transitioning into a cooperative owned by its workers, and therefore he's no longer needed as CEO.
'The IceStone workers cooperative will not happen all at once and right away, but one thing it does not need is a Chief Executive Officer,' he wrote Friday.
'I have stepped aside to turn my seat over to the men and women who will now be making the decisions,' he added. 'But I will be keeping my IceStone hard hat. That may come in handy.'
Weiner has held this position since May 2020, but his involvement was only made public in the fall.
Disgraced former Congressman and convicted sex offender Anthony Weiner has stepped down as CEO of a Brooklyn-based glass countertop manufacturer this week
Weiner said in a lengthy LinkedIn post that he is stepping down as the company is becoming a cooperative run by its workers. 'The IceStone workers cooperative will not happen all at once and right away, but one thing it does not need is a Chief Executive Officer,' he wrote
According to its website, IceStone champions itself as an employer committed to giving 'second chances' beyond its factory and products.
The company says it hires the homeless, refugees and even helps to train the formerly incarcerated, while ensuring 'everyone gets paid a living wage and has access to subsidized health insurance and a voice in the company.'
In his post, Weiner said, 'From its founding, IceStone has been more than a company that makes beautiful and sustainable solid surfaces for countertops, vanities and outdoor kitchens. It has been a laboratory for showing how a smart and socially conscious American small business can do big things by treating its workers as partners and as members of its family.
IceStone owner Del LaManga (pictured) has been friends with Weiner for years and will now head the company
'Being a worker's cooperative is exactly how it sounds – a company that is managed from the factory floor up and not the top down. It gives each employee a voice in policy and practices; a stake in the progress; and a share of the gains.'
The company will now be run by IceStone owner Del LaMagna and Lisa Bowen.
LaMagna told DailyMail.com, 'I was the CEO and a year or so ago I needed to stop and retire. Anthony stepped in and he actually did the job that I wasn't doing. He turned around our website and made a lot of good contribution. He showed up every day, which was last year during the pandemic, and it was very needed.'
'Obviously a worker's co-op doesn't need a CEO so he stepped aside. He'll advise us and advise me when I need it, but we're taking it to the workers.'
LaMagna said the move to a co-op is a big 'shake up' but said he doesn't know Weiner's next career move.
'We have a tendency and a reputation to hire people who need a second chance - who are homeless or formerly incarcerated - and obviously Anthony is an example of that,' LaMagna added.
Weiner stepped down from his seat in New York's 9th congressional district in 2011, after the then-married Democrat accidentally tweeted a crotch-shot of himself in his underwear to the public, on his official page.
He attempted to revive his political career two years later in a 2013 run for New York mayor. He surged to first place in the polls before his campaign suffered a spectacular blow when a second sexting scandal surfaced.
Weiner has held this position since May 2020, but his involvement was only made public in the fall
According to its website, IceStone champions itself as an employer committed to giving 'second chances' beyond its factory and products (a promotional shot of a product is seen above)
Weiner, still married to Hillary Clinton's aide Huma Abedin at the time, was found to be exchanging lewd messages online under the alias 'Carlos Danger'.
But the successive scandals were eclipsed four years later in 2017, when Weiner admitted to sexting with a 15-year-old girl, following a DailyMail.com investigation.
For months, Weiner and the minor exchanged sexually graphic text messages, spoke over several social media platforms and he sent her photographs of himself in various states of undress, sometimes posing with his son.
After DailyMail.com exposed Weiner, he admitted to knowing that the victim, from North Carolina, was underage at the time of their exchanges.
Weiner was arrested by FBI agents in May that year. He admitted one count of transmission of obscene material later that month, weeping in court as he entered his guilty plea.
'I have a sickness but I do not have an excuse,' he said, after the judge told him that he would have to register as a sex offender.
He was then sentenced to 21 months in prison that September, but was let out three months early on good behavior.
LaManga told the New York Post in September that he has known Weiner for a long time, having met him a number of years ago after an launching his own unsuccessful Congressional bid. He said he also visited Weiner a number of times while he was in prison.
'I knew him from the political world. He talked me out of running for mayor, which was good, and we developed a relationship,' he said.
'And then he got sucked into that whole thing. I wanted to help him any way I could. He served his time and coming out is tough. And so I said, 'Can you work for Ice Stone?' because he knows everybody in the city and the company is in Brooklyn.'
For months, they exchanged sexually graphic text messages, spoke over several social media platforms and he sent her photographs of himself in various states of undress, sometimes posing with his son
In 2017, Weiner admitted to sexting with a 15-year-old girl, following a DailyMail.com investigation (pictured above with then-wife, Huma Abedin)
The 75-year-old said the company has 'never been successful' and he hired Weiner last May in an effort to turn its fortunes around.
LaManga, who made his fortune as the founder of the Tweezerman brand of beauty tools, was originally an investor in the company but later took control and when the owner ran into financial difficulties.
'He's just methodically going through and reinventing every aspect. The first thing he did was rebuild the website so it works better…He took over supervising the factory, so he shows up there and he's a fanatically organized person, and he's cleaned all that up.'
He voiced confidence that he's 'completely moved on' from his troubled past.
'He's doing extremely well … He's very bright. I like him, my wife likes him.'
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