New Court Filing Has Angelina Jolie’s Former Company Claiming Brad Pitt Is ‘Looting’ Wine Business

U.S. actress Angelina Jolie arrives for the State Dinner in honor of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, at the White House in Washington on April 26, 2023. Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

A new court filing involving a French estate and winery that actor Brad Pitt and actress Angelina formerly owned together has escalated after Jolie’s former company made negative claims about Pitt.

Specifically, Jolie’s former investment firm Nouvel claims in the filing obtained by both CNN and People magazine that Pitt, 59, “has been engaged in a vindictive campaign to dominate and loot the wine business that the couple had built and owned together.”

The company accuses the actor along with “co-conspirators” of attempting to retain control of the chateau by “stripping” and “looting” its assets. Nouvel is seeking at least $350 million in damages.

“Pitt wasted the company’s assets, spending millions on vanity projects, including more than $1 million on swimming pool renovations, building and rebuilding a staircase four times, and spending millions to restore a recording studio,” the document filed Monday states.

Nouvel’s lawyers wrote that Pitt’s investment company Mondo Bongo has the same 50 percent ownership as Nouvel did. So, they write, “as a co-equal owner, Pitt enjoys precisely the same rights and obligations as Nouvel — nothing more, nothing less.”

Pitt Files Lawsuit Over His Claim of Wrongful Sale

It was in February of 2022 that Pitt first filed a lawsuit over Jolie’s sale of the estate and winery, calling it “unlawful.” Pitt claims the two had agreed when they purchased the property that neither would sell without the other’s consent or approval.

Chateau Miraval is a sprawling vineyard in the South of France both Jolie and Pitt bought a controlling stake in 2008. The property served as a family retreat and it’s where the couple were married in 2014.

An aerial view vineyard estate Chateau Miraval in Le Val, southeastern France which was once home to U.S. actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Michel Gangne/AFP via Getty Images

Located in the village of Correns on land first inhabited in pre-Roman times, the chateau is built in a modest vernacular style, has 35 rooms, and is surrounded by gardens, fountains, a moat, ancient aqueducts, a pond and chapel, and its vineyard. The wine cellar there was built in 1850 by Joseph-Louis Lambot, the inventor of reinforced concrete, who owned the nearby domaine of La Celle.

It was in October of 2021 that Jolie sold Nouvel to Tenute del Mondo, a subsidiary of Stoli Group, the global spirits portfolio controlled by Russian oligarch Yuri Shefler. Attorneys for Nouvel claim in the filing that Pitt’s “misconduct” amplified after Jolie sold Nouvel because Pitt was upset she didn’t sell it to him. That’s when Pitt filed the lawsuit over the sale of the estate.

“Incensed that Jolie sold Nouvel to Stoli rather than to him, Pitt has acted like a petulant child, refusing to treat Nouvel as an equal partner in the business,” the filing states.

Jolie Denies Agreement of Mutual Consent

Jolie subsequently filed a countersuit, claiming there was never any such agreement and that she sold her portion of the winery in an effort to have “financial independence” from Pitt and to “have some form of peace and closure to this deeply painful and traumatic chapter of her and their children’s lives.”

In court documents last month, attorneys for Pitt called Jolie’s sale of her stake in Miraval “vindictive” after an “adverse custody ruling,” according to a report by People Magazine. Pitt maintains Jolie sold it behind his back.

It was in May of 2021 that Pitt was awarded more time with his children, whom he shares with Jolie, as reported by Insider.

But Nouvel’s filing claims Jolie “offered to sell her interest“ to Pitt and ”negotiated with him for months.” Instead, his provision was designed to prohibit Jolie from publicly speaking about the events that led to the break-up of their marriage.

A Pitt source previously told People Magazine “the non-disparagement clause in the contract” was “a totally standard” business transaction.

Meanwhile, Pitt’s lawyers said the connection to the “Russia-affiliated spirits conglomerate” now “jeopardizes the reputation of the business that Pitt so carefully built.”

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt pose as they arrive for the premiere of her movie The Tourist by German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck in Rome on December 15, 2010. Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images

Ongoing Court Battles Since 2016 Divorce Filing

It was in 2016 that Jolie infamously filed for divorce from Pitt after a highly publicized “airplane incident” and an anonymous tip about a drunken argument between him and Jolie while the family traveled from France back to their Los Angeles home on a private jet. Pitt allegedly got “verbally abusive” and “physical” with one of their kids on the plane, a source said at the time.

Pitt denied any abuse while the Los Angeles Department of Child and Family Services and FBI investigated and found no abuse.

While the couple were declared legally single in 2019, the terms of their custody agreement are still ongoing. The two share six kids: Maddox, 21, Pax, 19, Zahara, 18, Shiloh, 17, and twins Vivienne and Knox, who turn 15 on Wednesday.