Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen has accused parent company Unilever of attempting to dilute the powers of the Ben & Jerry’s Independent Board and “deliberately rewrite history”.

The comments come after new Magnum’s pre-IPO filings in the US appeared to play down the board’s authority over areas including the ice cream brand’s social mission, powers Cohen says were explicitly protected when the business was sold.

In a statement shared with the media, Cohen said the filings represent “a deliberate attempt to rewrite history”, arguing that Unilever and Magnum are “eroding those protections from within”.

Cohen said: “This is a deliberate attempt to rewrite history and strip the Ben & Jerry’s Independent Board of the legal authority it was guaranteed.”

“When Ben and Jerry’s was sold in 2000, Jerry and I fought successfully to enshrine in the merger agreement that the Independent Board would have primary responsibility for safeguarding the quality of our product, brand marketing, licensing and use of the trademark, in addition to the social mission, in perpetuity,” he said.

“Now Unilever / Magnum are eroding those protections from within.”

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Cohen also criticised alleged efforts to undermine the chair of the independent board, Anuradha Mittal, adding “This is not governance. It’s a power grab to stifle the social mission, which will, in turn, destroy the long-term value of the brand.”

The Ben & Jerry’s co-founder said that the new filing “incorrectly implies that the Board has no standing to defend the terms of the agreement it was created to uphold”, calling it “a power grab to stifle the social mission” and warned that weakening the board would ultimately “destroy the long-term value of the brand”.

Tensions between the independent board and Unilever have flared repeatedly in recent years, most notably over the brand’s political stances and governance rights.

Cohen, who was arrested earlier this year after a protest for Gaza, said the latest filings should be seen as part of a wider effort “to silence anyone who dares to speak up”, adding that “conscience is not an inconvenience”.

The conflict comes as Unilever has been preparing to list its ice cream unit, including Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s, Wall’s and others, as a standalone business. The spin-off, expected in 2025–26, would mark one of the group’s biggest structural changes in decades.

Unilever has been approached for comment.