Brad Pitt accused of using winery fund as ‘personal piggy bank’ amid legal battle with Angelina Jolie | Hollywood ullu-web-prime.com

The legal battle between Hollywood’s estranged couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie over their French vineyard Château Miraval is getting murkier. Now, as per a People report, Brad has been countersued for misappropriating funds from Chateau Miraval. (Also read” Brad Pitt accused of ‘sandbagging’ Angelina Jolie as legal battle escalates: ‘Let her go’)

The company, named Tenute del Mondo, that Angelina sold her share of the winery to, has countersued Brad and his company Mondo Bongo for €20 million in damages related to Brad’s control over the winery in France.

New twist to the legal feud

According to People, Tenute is claiming that Brad used the funds and assets from the winery “on his personal expenses and to be diverted to his other business ventures rather than be paid out as dividends and loan repayments”.

“Pitt and Mondo Bongo have turned Château Miraval into their personal piggy bank,” read the documents in the countersuit, adding, “They have entered into a series of transactions using Château Miraval’s funds that have deprived Tenute of the profits and loan repayments to which it is entitled”.

The court documents alleged that Brad “caused millions of its funds to be spent on projects that benefit him personally, including more than $1 million on renovations for a swimming pool that only he uses”.

A jury trial?

The countersuit further states that Brad used Château Miraval’s assets to fund side businesses, “allowing them to use Château Miraval’s image, premises and assets for zero or below market compensation”.

The company is also claiming that Brad is not letting Angelina give the full control of the winery to the new shareholders. Tenute is demanding a jury trial for all damages, alleging that Brad and his company didn’t pay back €20 million in loans made by Angelina to support the winery.

Brad’s team or his legal counsel has not reacted to the new claims. However, as per People, a source aware of the new legal turn, calls the allegations “absurd”. The source stated that Brad is the man behind the winery’s success as he used his connections to push the business.

More about the legal battle

The feud stems from a lawsuit which Brad filed in 2022. In the suit, he alleged that Angelina’s 2021 sale of her stake in the winery to Tenute and its parent company, Stoli Group, is against an agreement they had made. It was about not selling without getting approval from the other.

Angelina is claiming that she tried to sell her stake to Brad but he insisted on her signing an extensive NDA, which she refused to do. According to Brad, it was a standard business NDA, adding that the sale “jeopardises the reputation of the business that Brad built”.

Brad and Angelina got married in 2014. Angelina filed for divorce just two years later. They share six kids together.