Angelina Jolie Company Sues Brad Pitt for $250 Million, Alleging Actor of Stealing Winery Business

Brad Pitt is being sued for $250 million by Angelina Jolie's old firm for allegedly stealing their wine business.

Nouvel LLC filed a cross-complaint today in response to Pitt's lawsuit alleging that Jolie improperly sold her ownership in Chateau Miraval, a French chateau and wine brand.

Angelina Jolie Claims Brad Pitt Masterminded Control of Winery

Angelina Jolie owned stakes in the winery through her company, Nouvel, but sold them to beverage giant Stoli last year. According to Nouvel's complaint, Pitt attempted to secretly relocate assets from their co-owned firm to friends and other companies, spent millions on vanity projects such as a swimming pool and more on a recording studio, and gave away half the company's trademarks for free.

The complaint wants at least $250 million in damages. According to Jolie's former firm, Pitt's alleged ploy resulted in her never seeing a penny of Chateau Miraval's tens of millions of dollars in revenues.

Nouvel's lawsuit says that ever since his former wife Angelina Jolie filed a divorce petition from him in 2016, Brad Pitt has been currently fighting a vindictive war against her and that the lawsuit seeks redress for Pitt's and his allies' illegal and harmful actions to injure Nouvel by devaluing its investments.

According to the lawsuit, she intended to sell her share to him after they divorced, but Pitt reportedly sought to include gag restrictions regarding their conflicts in the contract. She later sold Nouvel to worldwide beverage business Stoli Group, including her wine company share.

The complaint alleges Pitt refused to cooperate with the new co-owner and disseminated lies that its owner Yuri Shefler is an ally of Vladimir Putin even though the firm has sued the Russian government and Shefler was supposedly the target of a Kremlin-sponsored kidnapping attempt, Daily Mail reported.

Angelina Jolie Says Brad Pitt Asked Her To Sign "Hush Clause"

According to the attorneys, Pitt, 58, masterminded a so-far-successful scheme to gain control of Château Miraval, the South of France vineyard and residence in which the couple, who share six children, purchased a majority stake in 2008. They claim Pitt has now shut Nouvel out of Château Miraval and sees it as his kingdom, spending millions on vanity projects such as swimming pool improvements and other cash to restore a recording studio, as per Hollywood Life.

According to the legal filing, Jolie, 47, allegedly negotiated for months with Pitt's side to sell him her half of the winery - but he made an eleventh-hour demand for onerous and irrelevant conditions, including a provision prohibiting Jolie from publicly speaking about the events that led to their marriage's breakdown.

Per the petition, Jolie refused to sign the hush agreement and instead sold her stake to Tenute del Mondo, a Stoli Group affiliate, in October 2021. Pitt filed his complaint in June, accusing Jolie of tarnishing the wine industry's name by selling her half to a stranger, claiming she sought to inflict injury on him by selling her stakes in the wine firm.

Pitt stated that they had promised not to sell their separate stakes in the family firm without the approval of the other. In the filings, his legal team stated that Miraval became his passion project, which blossomed into a multimillion-dollar worldwide corporation and one of the world's most highly respected manufacturers of rosé wine as a result of his efforts.

Pitt's complaint claimed that Jolie's firm Nouvel owed his company, Mondo Bongo, the right of first refusal and that the transaction infringed on that right. Jolie had already been permitted to sell her half of the land in September. He is demanding damages in an amount to be established at trial, as well as declaring Jolie's reported transaction null and invalid, according to People.