Brad Pitt “scored a legal victory” recently, at least that’s what his crisis-management publicists want people to believe. The (pyrrhic) victory was that a court said that Angelina Jolie had to turn over certain communications between herself and her business managers and legal team. Jolie argued that all of these communications were privileged, but the judge said no, the emails and texts are not privileged. She will appeal, and her lawyer sounded disgusted by Pitt’s latest bullsh-t. Speaking of revealing communications, Pitt has claimed for years that Angelina sold her half of Chateau Miraval without his knowledge, without giving him a heads up, and that she was wrong to sell because Miraval is their children’s inheritance. Angelina has stated her reasons for selling repeatedly: that she did not want to be legally and financially tied to the man who abused and terrorized her and her children in 2016; that she did not want to be in the alcohol business any longer, because it brought up memories of Brad’s alcohol-fueled abuse; and that she had felt for years that Brad was mismanaging her investment in Miraval. Now Brad’s lawyers are trying to get Brad’s communications thrown out of court because they reveal that Brad was purposefully keeping Angelina in the dark about his business decisions related to Miraval.
Brad Pitt asked a judge to toss all claims accusing him of embezzlement as part of his bitter court battle over a French winery, Chateau Miraval, with his ex-wife Angelina Jolie, Us Weekly can exclusively report. On Monday, December 22, Pitt, 62, filed court docs that addressed the claims he and his business improperly used Miraval’s money for vanity projects, including $8 million spent on a home on the estate and building a swimming pool.
Pitt told the court that any expenses made by Miraval were disclosed and never kept a secret. He also addressed a message he sent his associates, as part of a conversation about Miraval building a music studio, that read, “I believe we should no longer send [Jolie] reports as she is trying to shop her shares.” He said his message is not evidence of a crime or embezzlement.
Pitt noted, “The message is framed as a personal view or observation, not an instruction, and reflects no intent to advance or facilitate any unlawful conduct.” He said there has been no suggestion that he was under any obligation to share the report in question with Jolie, 50.
His lawyer continued, “Nor does the message indicate any attempt or intent by [Pitt] to conceal stolen property from Jolie. Such a claim is nonsensical, given the public nature of the music studio and its association with [Miraval].”
Pitt argued that the alleged embezzlement claims filed against him should be heard in France, not California, since the alleged conduct happened in France. The F1 actor is demanding that all claims against him be thrown out of court.
Jolie ended up selling her shares to an alcohol company named Stoli. Pitt sued his ex to void the deal, claiming she needed his approval, which she denied. Stoli joined the lawsuit and filed a countersuit against Pitt in 2024. The company claimed that Pitt and his team, instead of paying out Miraval’s profits to them, diverted the money to fund side businesses “and used them to fund a series of wasteful vanity projects that benefited him personally.”
Mirval’s profits grew to around $15 million in 2022, the suit said. Stoli claimed “not a penny of the [tens] of millions of euros” that Miraval has earned over the years has ever been used to repay its loans. “Instead, Pitt uses the company’s funds as his own personal pocket money to indulge his wasteful spending and to benefit his business ventures.” The company said that over the years, Jolie had loaned Miraval $20 million to fund improvements.
“Pitt has caused Chateau Miraval to spend tens of millions of dollars on vanity projects that have little, if any, business justification,” Stoli’s lawyer argued. “Following the divorce filing, only Pitt has stayed at the manor house owned by Chateau Miraval and enjoyed the benefits of a personal lease on the property — Jolie never returned there.” Stoli said after Pitt and Jolie split, Pitt took over control of Miraval. The suit added, “Chateau Miraval has never distributed any of the business’ profits to its shareholders. Never.”
Stoli said Jolie noticed that Miraval was “spending large sums of money on projects that did not appear to have a legitimate business purpose. She began to insist on receiving information about Chateau Miraval’s finances and sought to exercise greater supervision over its business,” the countersuit alleged. “Pitt frequently resisted her requests and, over time, shut her out of the business, and deprived her of information about Chateau Miraval’s finances.”
Stoli claimed Pitt approved spending and budgets without Jolie’s approval. To support this claim, the company pointed to the alleged message Pitt sent in June 2021, which read, “I believe we should no longer send AJ reports as she is trying to shop her shares.”
A source tells Us, “It’s not surprising that after another favorable decision for Brad, these parties would proceed with another frivolous filing. Unfortunately, this is to be expected from the types of people she chose to go into business with.”
As much as Brad and his team want to make this about “Brad vs. Angelina,” other people are involved in the lawsuits and legal actions around Miraval. While Stoli has corporate issues, that makes them even more eager to get their money’s worth out of Miraval. There seems to be a great deal of evidence that Pitt has, at the very least, financially mismanaged Miraval. The issues Stoli has raised are tax issues for the French government as well – you can’t just run a vineyard and pocket all of the profits. And it’s wild that Pitt’s lawyers are trying to get this super-incriminating communication thrown out of court too – it not only shows Pitt’s willingness to cut Angelina out of the business, but it also shows that he was well aware that she wanted to get her investment out of Miraval (which actually contradicts Pitt’s previous claims about being blind-sided by Jolie’s sale).
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
