Relations between the former glamorous couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are at a low level again, and the heartthrob accuses his ex of trying to damage him by secretly selling his share in his French vineyard to a “Russian oligarch” with “poisonous intentions”.
The Fighters Club actor, 58, also states in a new court motion that there is a plan to take full control of his multimillion-dollar wine passion project.
Jolie, 47, has sold half of the Château Miraval winery to a booming company run by Yuri Shefler, 54, who owns a company that produces Russia’s leading Stolichnaya vodka, rebranded Stoli.
Pitt’s lawsuit over the sale began in February.
Legal documents compiled by DailyMail.com and submitted on June 3 cite Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and claim that “the Stoli brand is now a major international responsibility.”
They add that after Scheffler’s “desperate attempts to distance himself from Putin’s regime,” Stolichnaya “was the subject of a boycott around the world.”
“The US Treasury Department has identified Scheffler as an ‘oligarch in the Russian Federation’ in an unclassified report to Congress in accordance with the 2017 U.S. Anti-Sanctions Act,” the Los Angeles County Supreme Court said in a statement.
Pitt and Jolie, aka Brangelina before the breakup, bought a winery in Correns in 2008, and when they divorced, the estate was worth $ 164 million.
The castle in the south of France, where the couple got married in 2014, has become Brad’s “passion” and under his leadership one of the world’s most respected rosé producers, court documents say.
However, in October 2021, documents say that Jolie “deliberately sold her stake in Tenute del Mondo, to a hostile third competitor who is inclined to take control of Miraval.”
They also state that the Maleficent actor’s motivation for the deal was to “harm Pitt”.
The newspaper accuses Scheffler of endangering “the reputation of the brand that Pitt built so carefully”.
“All this is a direct result of Jolie’s illegal and tortious behavior. Violating the agreement of the parties, Jolie tried to force Pitt to partner with a foreigner, and even worse, a foreigner with poisonous associations and intentions, ”the newspaper explains.
The case is further complicated by a maze dispute over the size of Jolie’s share.
Pitt and Jolie bought the castle as a home to share with six children, as well as a vineyard to run as a family business, the newspaper writes.
The joint venture’s first wine, Miraval Rosé 2012, sold out its first 6,000 bottles online within five hours of its release.
Pitt and Jolie – whose six children are Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt, 20, Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt, 18, Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt, 17, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, 16 and twins Knox Léon Jolie-Pitt and Vivien-Pitt, 13 – were involved in a very bitter battle for custody of their litter.
Despite Pitt’s 50/50 custody victory just before Jolie decided to sell her stake in Miraval, he was later stripped of joint parental control, and in October 2021, a judge denied his request to review the verdict.
Scheffler publicly criticized Putin’s regime after the invasion of Ukraine and said he was expelled from his homeland.
The tycoon announced that he was changing the name of his Stolichnaya vodka in Stol because of Putin’s war against Ukraine, in which at least 14,000 people died.
Pitt is demanding a jury trial and charges Jolie, Shefler, Oliynik, SPI Group and Tenute del Mundo in a two-count lawsuit for breach of contract, breach of good faith and tortious interference in contractual relations.
