Brad Pitt’s novella The lawsuit accusing Angelina Jolie of making an “illegal” business deal behind her back has it all: grapes, anger and a Russian oligarch.
In her lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles, Pitt accuses Jolie of secretly selling the ex-couple’s half majority stake in their famed French winery, Chateau Miraval, to a company controlled by Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler. , knowing full well “Shefler and his affiliates would seek to control the business to which Pitt had devoted himself.
Pitt claims last October’s alleged sale not only violated their agreement that “they would never sell their respective interests in Miraval without each other’s consent,” but also denied him his guaranteed right of first refusal, which he claims to have exercised.
“Jolie stopped contributing to Miraval a long time ago – while Pitt poured money and sweat into the wine business, turning it into the bottom-up business it is today. Through from the alleged sale, Jolie seeks to seize the profits she did not earn and the returns on an investment she did not make,” the lawsuit states.
“Jolie’s violation, if authorized, will deprive Pitt of his right to enjoy his private home – without sharing ownership with a stranger – and secure his position in the business he has built from the ground up. for the long-term benefit of his family,” the filing reads, calling Shefler an “aggressive third-party competitor.”
The new lawsuit seeks both damages and the reversal of the sale to Shefler’s company.
Pitt, 58, and Jolie, 46, bought Château Miraval, based in Correns, France, in 2008, guaranteeing their respective shares in the companies they had created before their marriage: Nouvel LLC in Jolie’s case. and Mondo Bongo LLC for Pitt. The A-list couple began producing their own rosé wine in 2012, to great success, and married in a chapel at the Côtes de Provence estate in August 2014.
“The vineyard became Pitt’s passion – and a profitable business, as Miraval, under Pitt’s leadership, became a multi-million dollar international success story and one of the world’s most highly regarded rose wine producers,” indicates the new trial.
But then Jolie filed for divorce in 2016 after two years of marriage and 12 years together. And last summer, she claimed in court papers that she had spent the previous years trying to negotiate a working agreement or a “full buyout” scenario with her ex – without success.
She claimed that Pitt had approved “substantial expenses” related to Miraval without his consent and that they could not agree on “price and non-compete/non-disparagement agreements” for a buyout.
She asked the court to release her from divorce-related restraining orders that prevented her from signing an exclusivity agreement with an unidentified potential buyer.
“[Jolie] does not want to jointly own separate real estate with her ex-husband or be her unwitting and ignored business partner,” her documents said.
In his lawsuit, Pitt claims that since Shefler took control of Jolie’s stake in Miraval late last year, he and his agents have disrupted the vineyard’s ability to “manage its affairs” and “sought to take operational control of the wine business, by contacting Miraval’s distributors”. to discuss the terms of the contract, without authorization and without the knowledge or consent of Miraval. »
Pitt further claims that Shefler and his agents “seek to transfer Miraval’s intellectual property to Cyprus as part of an ill-founded and legally questionable tax strategy” and have “demanded that Château Miraval’s bank freeze its assets”.
Attempts to reach Jolie’s attorney were not immediately successful Thursday.
The ex-spouses are also locked in an ongoing custody battle over their four remaining minor children.
