Report: Investors Sue Malibu Media, Malibu Media Sues its Attorneys

LOS ANGELES – According to a report by Eriq Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter, a complaint has been filed against Malibu Media’s Colette Pelissier and Brigham Field by Genova Capital and Warmblood Inc., firms operated by investors Joshua Hunter and Robert Cook, alleging breach of contract.

Pelissier and Field, meanwhile, have filed a lawsuit of their own. In a complaint filed against attorneys Edgar Sargsyan, Art Kalantar, Henrik Mosesi and Pillar Law Group, Pelissier and Field allege breach of fiduciary duty and fraud, among other claims.

Gardner’s article doesn’t link to the complaint filed against Pelissier and Field, although it does provide a link to the pair’s lawsuit filed against their attorneys.

In the complaint against Pelissier and Field, the investors reportedly allege that the pair’s “high-end lifestyle has begun to outstrip their business income.” The complaint also states that Genova Capital loaned Pelissier and Field $2.5 million in 2016 and that Warmblood later invested $400,000 in Malibu Media.

“On information and belief, in late 2018, Malibu Media was in need of a capital infusion to continue its Copyright Enforcement Efforts,” the complaint reportedly states. “Pelissier sought financial help.”

Under the agreement between Malibu and its investors, Gardner reports that “Malibu Media got consulting services in the form of financial forecasting and budgeting and gave up 50 percent of its net recovery from the mass copyright litigation, as well as a 50 percent interest in the copyrights to the adult films.”

But, despite allegedly generating $2.8 million through its copyright litigation in 2018, the plaintiffs say they haven’t received payment, or any accounting for what happened to the money.

“On information and belief, Defendants are shuttling assets and interests out of Malibu Media and into more obscure entities, including the shell entity holding companies: Click Here, Colette Holdings, Colette Properties, Colette Production, Inc., Colette Productions LLC, and/or Zo Digital,” the complaint reportedly alleges.

In the complaint against their attorneys, Pelissier and Field state “PLG and Sargsyan represented Malibu Media in connection with the copyright litigation for approximately six months.”

“During that time period, PLG and Sargsyan recovered approximately $2.4 million in the copyright lawsuits,” the complaint states. “Those funds should have been deposited into PLG’s client trust account on behalf of Malibu Media for distribution to Malibu Media. Yet PLG and Sargsyan only remitted $40,000 to Malibu Media. Malibu Media is informed and believes that PLG inappropriately transferred the funds rightfully belonging to Malibu Media to, or for the benefit of, Sargsyan, Mosesi and Kalantar.”

The complaint also details a real estate deal Pelissier and Field engaged in with Sargsyan, in which Sargsyan is alleged to have engaged in a variety of illegal and fraudulent acts. The full set of allegations is beyond the scope of this post, but includes claims that Sargsyan altered agreements after they’d been signed, and “forged Pelissier’s signature on a grant deed purporting to convey the Property from Colette Properties, LLC and Regdalin, as joint owners, to Regdalin as sole owner.” (Regdalin is an entity allegedly owned and controlled by Sargsyan.)

None of the parties involved in either lawsuit have provided comment on the complaints – and since the complaints were filed just days ago, the defendants in each have not responded to the claims made against them. YNOT will continue to track these cases and report future developments.