There's no let-up in the rivalry that has been going on for years between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The famous actor is accusing his ex-wife of deliberately damaging the reputation of the wine business they had together in the past with her move to sell her stake to an "unknown."
Back in 2008, the former couple, who have six children together, bought a majority stake in the Château Miraval vineyard and estate in the south of France. In 2014, the Brangelina's were joined in matrimony and it was at this vineyard that they spent many family holidays together during their life together.
Brad Pitt: "Deliberately sought to cause me harm."
In his latest court testimony, the 58-year-old actor claims his 47-year-old ex-wife deliberately "sought to cause him harm" by selling her interests in the wine company.
Pitt, for his part, says they had agreed never to sell their respective interests in the family business without each other's consent. Jolie did not respond to a question about the matter posed to her by People magazine.
Jolie did not contribute at all to the spread of the company
Pete's legal team writes in the documents, filed Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court and obtained by People, that Miraval was his "great passion" that grew "into a multi-million dollar global business and one of the world's most recognized rosé wine producers." The actor accuses Jolie of not contributing "at all to Miraval's success".
In the filing, Pitt's lawyers say Jolie was planning to sell her stake in October to Tenute del Mondo, which is "determined to take control of Miraval" and is "owned and controlled indirectly by Yuri Scheffler, the Russian billionaire who controls the Stoli group."
"Jolie pursued and then completed the alleged sale in secret, intentionally keeping Pete in the dark and knowingly violating Pete's contractual rights," the actor's team's filing said.
Extreme tactics by Russian businessman
In his lawsuit, Brad Pitt claims that Jolie's business "Nouvel" owed his company Mondo Bongo the right of first refusal and that the sale violated that right. Jolie, who filed for divorce in 2016, had previously received permission to sell her stake in September.
Pitt's team also says Scheffler launched a hostile takeover of Miraval and is trying to obtain "confidential and proprietary information for the benefit of his competing business." The documents accuse Scheffler of having "extreme business tactics and questionable professional intentions," which in turn "jeopardize the reputation of the company Pitt so carefully and painstakingly built." They add: "Jolie attempted to coerce Pitt into working with a stranger, and worse, a stranger with poisonous intentions."
Brad Pitt seeks damages
Pitt is seeking damages in "an amount to be disclosed at trial" as well as to declare the alleged sale made by Jolie "null and void." The actor is even asking for the trial to be conducted with a jury. Jolie, for her part, has previously faced problems with the sale of her shares in Quimicum, the company that owns and controls Miraval, due to her long-running divorce with Pitt. In July, she asked a California court to allow the sale despite the fact that divorce proceedings had not been finalized.
Source: Proto Thema
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