Jolie’s grapes of wrath
Pitt accused of ‘squandering millions from their vineyard’
BRAD Pitt ‘squandered tens of millions of dollars on vanity projects’ in revenge for his divorce from Angelina Jolie, a $250million (£218million) lawsuit claims.
Pitt, 58, has been hit with legal action in a Los Angeles court over the French vineyard the former couple owned.
He is accused of seizing control and frittering away profits so Miss Jolie would ‘never see a dime’.
The actor, it is claimed, attempted to ‘ secretly move assets’ from Chateau Miraval, the rosé-producing vineyard and castle he bought with his ex-wife, to friends and other companies.
The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles by Nouvel, the company Miss Jolie founded to keep her stake in the business.
It comes after Pitt sued her, claiming she had unlawfully sold her shares in Miraval to drinks company Stoli last October.
Pitt claimed that she ‘sought to inflict harm’ on him and that she had agreed not to sell her share
without his consent. Her filings, which are a counter claim, allege Pitt moved assets from the business and ‘squandered tens of millions of Miraval’s money on vanity projects that have little, if any, business justification’.
Among the examples cited are a $1million swimming pool and a recording studio.
They also claim he ordered a staircase at the chateau to be rebuilt four times and spent ‘several million dollars on reconstructing stone walls using stone masons from Croatia’, US gossip website Page Six reported. The lawsuit
says this money was spent despite Miss Jolie, 47, and Nouvel’s objections. Pitt is also accused of giving half of the company’s trademarks away to a friend for free.
Nouvel claims his actions meant Miss Jolie would ‘never see a dime’ of Miraval’s ‘ tens of millions of dollars in profits’. The company alleges that ‘ever since his former wife, Angelina Jolie, filed for divorce from him in 2016, Brad
Pitt has been waging a vindictive war against her’ and has ‘embarked on a multi-faceted, years-long campaign to seize control of Chateau Miraval’. The lawsuit also alleged that Pitt refused to work with the new co-owner Stoli and spread ‘lies’ that its owner, Yuri Shefler, is ‘ an ally of Vladimir Putin’.
He sued Miss Jolie earlier this year and said she ‘sought to inflict harm’ on him and that she previously agreed not to sell her share without his consent.
He also claimed Miss Jolie contributed ‘nothing to Miraval’s success’.
The couple bought the Provence chateau in 2008 for $25million and used it as their wedding venue in 2014.
Following their divorce in April 2019, the pair have been embroiled in a custody row over their children Maddox, 21, Pax, 18, Zahara, 17, Shiloh, 16, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 14.
Pitt’s representatives were contacted for comment.
They have previously said the lawsuit is ‘yet another rehash and repackaging of old material to try and distract from the other party’s own behaviour’.
‘He waged a vindictive war’