Brad Pitt was accused of concealing “embezzled assets” as part of his legal battle with his ex-wife Angelina Jolie over a French winery they purchased during their marriage, In Touch can exclusively report.
Brad, 61, and Angelina, 49, have been locked in the bitter court battle ever since Brad filed suit in 2022.
The exes purchased Chateau Miraval in 2008 with the goal of turning the winery into a business they could pass down to their children.
Brad and Angelina purchased Miraval through their separate investment companies. Brad used his company Mondo Bongo LLC and Angelina used her company Nouvel LLC.
The two investment companies purchased Quimicum, Miraval’s parent company, which allowed them to acquire the winery. The couple split in 2016.
In 2021, Angelina emailed Brad informing him she wanted out of the business. Brad and his team started to negotiate with Angelina to purchase her shares in Miraval. Brad offered $54.4 million.
The deal was never executed and Angelina sold Nouvel, which held her shares in Miraval, to the Stoli Group, owned and controlled by Russian billionaire Yuri Shefler, and its subsidiary Tenute del Mondo.
Brad said Angelina was paid $64 million from Stoli. In his lawsuit, Brad claimed Angelina violated an agreement not to sell their shares to a third party without the other’s consent.
Angelina denied all allegations of wrongdoing. Nouvel, which was sold to Stoli, filed a $250 million countersuit against Brad claiming the actor misused Miraval’s assets.
The company said Brad and his team had “frozen Nouvel out of Château Miraval and treats it as his personal fiefdom.” Brad accused Stoli of attempting a hostile takeover of the business. He denied all allegations of wrongdoing in the suit. In May, a second countersuit was filed against Brad by Stoli’s subsidiary Tenute del Mondo. The suit had similar claims as the Nouvel countersuit filed against Brad.
In the suit, Tenute claimed that Brad and Mondo Bongo embezzled property by secretly diverting Château Miraval’s assets in France to “vanity projects,” also located in France, that allegedly had no “business purpose.”
“[Brad] caused Chateau Miraval’s funds and assets to be spent on his personal expenses and to be diverted to his other business ventures rather than be paid out as dividends and loan repayments that would flow through Quimicum to Mondo Bongo and Nouvel, and ultimately back to [Brad] and [Angelina],” Tenute’s suit read. “That illegal conduct continued, and even intensified, after [Angelina] sold Nouvel to Tenute, the wine-making arm of the international beverage company, Stoli Group.”
Brad argued the case should be heard overseas, not as part of the California lawsuit. Now, Tenute is asking that Brad be shut down and the lawsuit against him continue.
A lawyer for the company argued, “Tenute sufficiently alleges that [Brad], a California resident, directed, in California, Chateau Miraval’s CEO to conceal embezzled assets.”
The lawyer added, “Tenute pleads that neither [Brad] nor Chateau Miraval’s CEO had the authority to divert property to side businesses or personal expenses. Tenute also pleads criminal intent because [Brad and his company] deliberately concealed their misappropriation.”
Tenute said Nouvel loaned Miraval $20 million with the agreement the money would be repaid once the business was profitable.
The lawyer added, “Tenute alleges that [Brad] and Mondo Bongo have misappropriated millions of dollars of Chateau Miraval funds that should have been distributed to Tenute to their side business, Miraval Studios, in which they hold a 40% interest but in which Tenute has a mere 5% interest.”
The company said Brad’s team hid spending from Angelina. Further, they said Brad “concealed or aided in the concealing of the embezzlement in part because he sent a message to [Brad’s business partner] directing him to ‘no longer send AJ reports as she is trying to shop her shares.’”
The company argued, “[Brad’s] message to [Brad’s business partner] was at least a preparatory act in concealing or aiding in the concealment of embezzlement.”
Tenute alleges that when Angelina’s representatives questioned Chateau Miraval’s CEO about his approval of Miraval’s “spending on expenses for the sole benefit of [Brad], [the CEO] responded in substance ‘What am I to do? He’s my boss.’”
Tenture said there was enough evidence to allow their counterclaim to move forward.
Sources close to Brad tell In Touch, “This is just the latest desperate attempt by certain parties to defend their indefensible positions by resorting to obviously flawed and factually baseless claims, while attempting to manipulate the California Penal Code in unprecedented ways.”
The source added “It’s a clear example of the harm inflicted on Brad through the forced partnership with Stoli and the ongoing misuse of legal systems for personal agendas.”
Another source argued that by Angelina selling off her stake in the company, she not only “forced her kid’s father into business with challenging characters, but also allowed her to take the children’s inheritance for herself for her own purpose.”
A judge has yet to decide.