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Brad Pitt demands to depose ex Angelina Jolie under oath in nasty fight over French winery Château Miraval

Brad Pitt demands to depose ex Angelina Jolie under oath in nasty fight over French winery Château Miraval

The Sun11 hours ago
BRAD Pitt has demanded that his ex-wife Angelina Jolie be deposed under oath in their nasty fight over their French winery, Château Miraval.
The U.S. Sun can exclusively reveal in court documents filed this week, Brad's team has asked the court to compel Angelina's company, Nouvel LLC, to be questioned in their ongoing legal battle over the vineyard and estate.
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According to Brad's filing, Nouvel has objected to being deposed, calling the topic of the inquiry "overbroad, unduly burdensome, and not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence."
Brad, 61, alleged that Angelina, 50, was open to a third-party sale of Miraval as early as March of 2021.
"On March 30, 2021, a lawyer for Stoli Group contacted Jolie's California-based divorce lawyer to inquire whether she would be interested in selling her stake in Miraval, Brad alleged in one recent filing," his attorney wrote.
The F1 star also claimed that while he and his team believed they were negotiating with Angelina by way of Nouvel to purchase her 50 percent stake in the company, she was "secretly" negotiating with Stoli.
"Throughout May 2021, while Jolie was still purporting to negotiate with Pitt and Mark Perrin [Brad's partner in Miraval], Stoli and Jolie continued to negotiate in secret."
The actor alleged his ex-wife's "transactional counsel even provided 'detailed feedback' to Stoli and its negotiators, including [fellow defendant, Russian businessman, Alexey Oliynik, whose deposition is also being sought] regarding what it would take for Stoli to beat Pitt's offer."
Brad then claimed that by the end of May 2021, "Stoli and Jolie had arrived at a ballpark price of $65 million for the deal—a price that was kept secret from Pitt, and which, in the wake of the private judge's ruling finding Jolie not credible, she never gave him the opportunity to match."
The sale of Miraval is at the crux of the fight between Brad and Angelina over the French vineyard and estate.
Brad is claiming that Nouvel is Angelina's "alter ego," as she used the company as a shell to circumvent contractual restrictions.
In the motion, he says that in deposing Nouvel, he is seeking testimony about Nouvel and Tenute del Mondo's initial investments in Miraval.
Tenute del Mondo is a Netherlands private limited company, who is also named as a defendant in Brad's lawsuit.
He is also seeking information about the entities' "subsequent financial contributions to the home and winery at the heart of this dispute."
Brad is also interested in the 10 percent transfer from his own company Mondo Bongo to Nouvel of shares in Quimicum, as well as the restrictions on transfers of sales in the agreement in the Quimicum Articles and the Transfer Restrictions.
In a separate case, in a Luxembourg court, a judge has put the 10% of shares in question into an escrow account while the parties work out the legality behind Brad's one-euro sale to Angelina, which made their ownership of the vineyard go from 60/40 Brad to 50/50 between them.
In the Luxembourg case, Brad is alleging Angelina never actually paid him the one euro for the 10% shares and therefore the sale should be voided.
HOW MIRAVAL CAME TO BE
The couple purchased the estate in 2011 for an estimated $60 million with Brad claiming it was to be passed down to their children.
The property, which includes a 35-room manor and extensive vineyard, is said to now be worth around $500 million.
He has claimed he was the driving force behind the success of the winery, spending both his time and money on the endeavor early on.
In 2016, the couple split but both continued to maintain their stake in the company, until 2021 when Angelina told Brad she wanted out of the business.
She reportedly said Brad used the company's money to fund his personal pursuits.
Angelina and Brad almost came to an agreement for him to be able to purchase the company, however the pair locked horns after Brad proposed a nondisparagement agreement in connection with the deal.
As The U.S. Sun previously revealed, Angelina argued Brad wanted her to sign an NDA to cover up "years of abuse."
Brad argued Angelina's issue was actually that she already had a deal lined up with Stoli Group.
Stoli is owned and controlled by Russian billionaire, Yuri Shefler, and its subsidiary Tenute del Mondo.
Brad sued Angelina over the Stoli deal in 2022 saying she had sold Miraval without his approval, and argued that without that, the sale was invalid.
He was seeking at least $67 million in his suit.
Jolie's company, Nouvel, filed a $250 million countersuit against Brad.
Stoli accused the actor of misusing company assets on vanity projects, allegations he denied.
Angelina has yet to respond to Brad's recent filings.
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