Brad Pitt Demands $250 Million Lawsuit Filed By Angelina Jolie's Ex-Company Be Thrown Out As War Over French Estate Heats Up
Feb. 21 2023, Published 4:00 p.m. ET
Brad Pitt has asked a court to dismiss all counterclaims filed against him by his ex-wife Angelina Jolie’s former company — as the two continue to fight over the $165 million French estate, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, Pitt and his legal team are demanding the countersuit filed by Jolie’s former company Nouvel be thrown out of court.
As we previously reported, last year, Pitt sued Jolie accusing her of breaking a promise they made during their marriage. The two purchased a $165 million French estate/winery named Chateau Miraval in 2008 while they were married.
Pitt said he spent a ton of time and invested millions in turning the winery into a successful business with the plans to hand it over to his kids.
The actor claimed Jolie had promised not to sell her stake in the company without his approval. He said in 2021 Jolie came to him and said she wanted to sell her stake.
Pitt said they agreed that Pitt would purchase her stake or they would find a third party. However, he said after a decision came down in their custody battle, that she found unfavorable, Jolie went behind his back and sold her portion to a company called Tenute del Mondo which is owned by Stoli Group. Tenute del Mondo is “indirectly owned and controlled” by a Russian oligarch named Yuri Shefler.
Pitt said after the sale by his ex-wife, Yuri, and the other defendants attempted a “hostile” takeover of the company.
He has demanded Jolie’s sale be vacated.
In response, Nouvel, the company Jolie sold to Stoli which held her stakes in Chateau, filed a $250 million countersuit against Pitt.
"Ever since his former wife, Angelina Jolie, filed for divorce from him in 2016, Brad Pitt has been waging a vindictive war against her," the suit read.
"Pitt has frozen Nouvel out of Château Miraval and treats it as his personal fiefdom," the filing said.
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Nouvel accused Pitt of wasting millions of the company’s money on vanity projects and accused him of secretly moving assets to companies owned by him and his friends.
"Pitt wasted its assets, spending millions on vanity projects, including more than $1 million on swimming pool renovations," the suit read.
In the countersuit, Nouvel accused the actor of attempting “a so-far-successful plan to seize control of Château Miraval.” Pitt co-owns the company through his investment company Mondo Bongo.
"Pitt wasted its assets, spending millions on vanity projects, including more than $1 million on swimming pool renovations," according to the court papers.
Nouvel claimed Jolie was willing to sell her stake to her ex-husband but the deal blew up after he made last-minute demands including a provision that barred her from talking about their relationship.
Now, Pitt has demanded all the claims filed by Nouvel be thrown out. His lawyers argued that despite Nouvel’s claims, “Château Miraval grew more valuable” with his work and pointed to the business receiving “over €30 million from Miraval Provence in dividends from 2013–2020, which were reinvested into Château Miraval.”
Pitt said the former couple owned their interests in a company called Quimicum, “and thus Château Miraval, through their respective California LLCs, Mondo Bongo, and Nouvel.”
The actor said in the years before Jolie sold her interest, she was trying to take control of the company by appointing her own representative to the Quimicum board, “even though Quimicum had historically been managed by an “independent director” from an “administrative and fiduciary services agency.”
“In September 2020, Jolie again attempted to install her own representative at Quimicum. Mondo Bongo again voted against Jolie’s campaign to oust Quimicum’s independent director. The independent director purported to resign in June 2021, leaving Quimicum without a functioning board.
Then, in October 2021, he said Jolie sold her stake to Tenute del Mondo. He said, “This announcement came after Jolie had spent many months in exclusive buyout negotiations with Pitt for her interest in Quimicum.”
Pitt said since the sale Stoli and the other defendants have tried to install Stoli representatives at Quimicum’s board, “pushed governance and structural changes to Château Miraval and Miraval Provence”, and ‘launched a multijurisdictional litigation campaign against the Cross-Defendants, including discovery actions in the U.S. and France, a criminal action in France, two civil lawsuits in Luxembourg.”
Pitt said he has fought the Stoli defendants’ various attempts. The actor argued that all of Nouvel’s claims against him fail for various reasons including some being time-barred.
He has demanded all claims be dismissed and his lawsuit against Jolie continues on. As RadarOnline.com first reported, Jolie is battling the FBI in a separate lawsuit over records relating to their investigation of the couple's infamous 2016 private plane fight.