Papa John’s Chief Executive Steve Ritchie deliberately smeared the pizza chain’s founder with untrue accusations of racism to save his own job, according to a blistering lawsuit unsealed late Thursday.

The suit, the second filed by Papa John’s founder John Schnatter against the company, claims Ritchie “admitted privately” to the smear, the suit alleges.

In the suit, Schnatter also lobbed legal salvos against one unidentified board member, claiming “highly sexual” comments were made about another on the Papa John’s board.

Schnatter’s relationship with the company he founded in 1984 has turned toxic over the past year, after the executive last fall criticized the NFL, a marketing partner, for its handling of the national-anthem player protests.

The remarks cost Schnatter his CEO title.

The executive was then caught in May using a racial slur on an internal conference call. Schnatter was quickly forced to cede his chairman position.

Schnatter, in the suit, claims Ritchie is scapegoating him for the chain’s declining performance. The suit asks the court to muzzle Ritchie from issuing any public statements about Schnatter as well as to invalidate a poison pill the board adopted to prevent the founder from acquiring a majority stake in the Louisville-based pizza chain.

“John Schnatter will do anything to distract attention from the harm caused by his inappropriate words,” the company said in a statement. “He continues to make reckless allegations in his attempt to regain control and serve his own interests.”