First Amended Complaint Draws Striking Parallel From Foster’s Warnings to Sony’s Findings
Today, Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors filed a First Amended Complaint on behalf of Richard Foster, the former CEO of WPP's Motion Content Group, adding substantial detail to his whistleblower retaliation claims and the evidence available to WPP which confirms his internal reports to senior officers. An independent investigation by Sony corroborates Foster’s claims regarding WPP’s improper rebate practices and the identity of the senior executives protecting them.
Foster spent years documenting the problem – and the executives behind it. WPP’s rebate practices were not the work of rogue actors, but a systemic operation built and protected at the highest levels. Both Mark Patterson, Global President of Markets and Business Operations for WPP Media, and Andrew Meaden, Global Chief Investment Officer for WPP Media, were identified by Foster as executives perpetrating WPP’s rebate model. Foster repeatedly warned leadership regarding how WPP improperly retains value generated by clients’ advertising spend. The amended complaint further alleges that these senior executives did not merely tolerate the practices, but condoned, supervised, and mandated them.
Foster put those warnings in writing and gave them to Brian Lesser in confidence. In December 2024, Foster delivered Lesser a confidential 35-page report, titled “Project Claridges.” There, he documented his calculations that GroupM improperly derived nearly $1 billion annually from “rebate deals,” and proposed solutions for reform. He also identified Mark Patterson and Andrew Meaden in the report.
Lesser shared Foster’s report to the very executive it explicitly implicated. Lesser revealed Project Claridges to Mark Patterson – the very executive Foster identified as an architect of the improper rebate practices. Within days of receiving Project Claridges, Patterson was elevated to a position directly above Foster: putting the executive Foster identified in direct control of the channels through which he could work, speak, and be heard.Foster was thenprogressively pushed aside, excluded from meetings, stripped of responsibilities, marginalized within WPP.
Executives fire Foster “without cause.” In the aftermath of Patterson receiving Foster’s report, Nicola McCormick, a senior legal officer at WPP, confirmed Foster’s fate at WPP: “sadly… you will not get what you need…” at GroupM now. Then, on July 10, 2025, Foster was fired “without cause.” WPP offered Foster a seven-figure termination package conditioned on his silence regarding the company’s rebate practices. He refused.
Then, Sony independently uncovered the same executives and scheme. Sony Group Corporation – one of WPP’s largest clients – launched an independent investigation into WPP’s rebate practices and reached the same conclusions Foster raised internally and outlined within Project Claridges: that WPP is running a “global crime scheme.” Sony’s investigation uncovered WPP’s rebate practices and their continued use following the 2023 China probe, which involved a handful of executives who funneled approximately $176 million into their personal accounts, with one executive receiving a life sentence. Sony also discovered WPP’s rebate structures were then “re-engineered by Patterson and Meaden to ensure its ongoing operation,” to discreetly continue to profit off of the improper practice and evade detection.
Foster seeks $100 million in damages. The case, Foster v. WPP, is pending in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County (Index No. 659721/2025).
Together, Project Claridges and Sony’s investigation tell the same story from opposite sides of the table. Foster’s amended complaint is the ultimate portrait of whistleblower retaliation inside a conspiracy to preserve an unlawful operation and the executives it implicated.