Rodney Dangerfield’s Widow Settles $4 Million Battle With Ex-biz Partners After Lady Gaga Was Named as Potential Witness
Jul. 19 2023, Published 1:30 p.m. ET
Rodney Dangerfield’s widow Joan has reached a settlement with the “cut-throat” businessmen she accused of exploiting her trust — weeks before the trial was set to start, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, Joan and the defendants informed the court of the agreement.
The filing read, “the Stipulation for Settlement conditions dismissal of the entire case on the satisfactory completion and signing of a long-form agreement. Thus, Plaintiff and Defendants anticipate that the case will be dismissed by August 14, 2023 or earlier.”
A rep for Dangerfield tells RadarOnline.com, “All matters between the Parties have been resolved amicably.”
As RadarOnline.com first reported, the legendary comedian’s widow sued Steve Fox and Peter McMillan III, and his Willowbrook Capital Group, LLC of exploiting her trust and “confidence by lying to her, concealing information they were required to disclose, and excluding her from key discussions through a series of back-room deals detrimental to Dangerfield’s position and investment.”
Dangerfield filed her lawsuit in 2018. The case accused the defendants of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and contract in a deal involving plans to build entertainment venues with sophisticated technology.
“The Defendants’ scam involved making false promises, concealing critical business information, creating false documents, throttling Rockdome’s economic opportunities, and implementing a secret plan to bankrupt Rockdome and obtain its assets free of (Dangerfield's investment),” the lawsuit alleged
The deal fell apart in 2016 when Fox, the CEO, allegedly claimed to be having trouble raising capital for the business. As a result, he induced Dangerfield to pour more money into the project to fund his “bloated salary and expenses.”
“What [Dangerfield] did not know at the time was that McMillan and Fox were secretly planning for Rockdome to go through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, without Plaintiff’s consent,” the suit claimed. “In addition to withholding critical information from [Dangerfield], Defendants began to dismantle established strategic partnerships and alliances that [Dangerfield] had helped build for Rockdome, in order to purposely weaken Rockdome’s economic position.”
“After the foreclosure, Fox caused Rockdome Inc., to abandon the Rockdome name so that a new company formed by McMillan could steal the name and associated goodwill and continue the Rockdome plan to develop valuable entertainment venues using the assets that had originally secured Dangerfield’s investment,” the suit alleged.
The defendants denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
The settlement comes days after RadarOnline.com revealed Lady Gaga was in discussions to testify as a witness in the case.
Sources told RadarOnline.com the singer was scheduled to be the venue’s first resident artist for the Las Vegas spectacular featuring a 360-degree virtual theater experience.