LOS ANGELES (Court TV) – Actor Brad Pitt has accused his ex-wife Angelina Jolie of secretly conspiring with a Russian oligarch in a new filing in a lawsuit over the sale of their French winery.
Pitt and Jolie, who had an acrimonious divorce following an alleged incident on a 2016 flight, had purchased the property in the south of France together in 2008, according to CNN. Jolie later sold her stake in the property in 2021, prompting Pitt to file a lawsuit in 2022.
This combination photo shows Angelina Jolie at a premiere in Los Angeles on Sept. 30, 2019, left, and Brad Pitt at a special screening on Sept. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/File)
In Pitt’s latest filing on June 1, his attorneys say they “deny, generally and specifically, each and every allegation set forth in Jolie’s Cross-Complaint, and further deny that Jolie is entitled to any relief whatsoever. The only thing that Jolie’s Cross-Complaint gets right is that she and Pitt purchased Château Miraval as a ‘loving home for their six children.'”
Pitt maintains that he and Jolie had a binding agreement that they would only sell their individual interests in the property with the other’s consent. To that end, Pitt’s motion claims that the California LLCs the property was purchased by – Mondo Bongo and Nouvel – “were parties to a written contract that provided each entity with a right of first refusal over any sale of their interests in Miraval.”
During what Pitt’s motion describes as a “heated child custody dispute” in 2021, Jolie “secretly purported to sell a 50% stake in the family home and family business to the Russia-affiliated spirits conglomerate Stoli Group.” Stoli Group, the motion points out, is owned by billionaire Yuri Shefler, who has been designated as an “oligarch in the Russian Federation” by the United States government.
Pitt said he only learned of the sale through a press release that announced Stoli was “thrilled to have a position alongside Brad Pitt as curators” of the wine.
Additionally, Pitt’s motion alleges that Jolie was not entitled to a 50 percent stake in the property. Pitt said that he invested an additional $50 million in the property in both money and sweat equity. Pitt alleges that Jolie acknowledged this, and initially promised that “she would ‘leave with what I put in and nothing additional” meaning that the property proceeds would be broken up 68-32.
Jolie’s attorney, Paul Murphy, referenced abuse allegations from 2016 in a statement to CNN regarding the new filing: “Still today and in the seven years since that fateful plane ride, he personally has never publicly denied that it happened. The reality is that Pitt refused to complete the Miraval sale with Jolie unless she agreed to being silenced about the abuse.”
In a statement in October, when the initial filing was made, Pitt’s attorney told CNN, “Brad has accepted responsibility for what he did but will not for things he didn’t do.”
Pitt has never been charged or arrested in connection with the alleged incident, which was investigated by the FBI, as the Los Angeles Times reported in 2019.
