The legal dispute involving Brad Pitt and the French winery formerly co-owned with ex Angelina Jolie has taken a fresh turn.
On May 13, Tenute del Mondo, the company to which Jolie, 48, sold her company Nouvel and its shares, filed a countersuit against Pitt, 60, and his company Mondo Bongo, seeking €20 million in damages concerning Pitt’s management of the Château Miraval winery in Correns, France.
According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, Tenute alleged that Pitt mismanaged funds and assets associated with Château Miraval “to be spent on his personal expenses and to be diverted to his other business ventures rather than be paid out as dividends and loan repayments.”
The documents allege that Pitt “caused millions of its funds to be spent on projects that benefit him personally, including more than $1 million on renovations for a swimming pool that only he uses.”
The countersuit additionally claims that Pitt diverted Château Miraval’s assets to multiple side businesses “by funding them with Château Miraval’s money and/or allowing them to use Château Miraval’s image, premises and assets for zero or below market compensation.”
A source familiar with the litigation tells PEOPLE the allegation that Pitt stole from the winery is “absurd,” adding that the actor “built Miraval, and his connection to it is a key reason for its success.” The source says, “It is Stoli that is trying to take what it did not build and improperly glom onto Mr. Pitt’s well-earned fame.”
“Pitt and Mondo Bongo have turned Château Miraval into their personal piggy bank,” claims the countersuit. “They have entered into a series of transactions using Château Miraval’s funds that have deprived Tenute of the profits and loan repayments to which it is entitled.”
The legal dispute between Pitt’s company and Tenute originated from a lawsuit filed by Pitt in 2022, which claimed that Jolie’s sale of her stake in the winery to Tenute and its parent company, Stoli Group, in 2021 violated their agreement not to sell without mutual approval.
Jolie’s legal team contended that she tried to sell her stake to Pitt, but he insisted on her signing a comprehensive NDA as part of the deal, a condition she refused.
Pitt’s camp argued that the NDA was standard business practice, and Jolie’s sale to Stoli Group posed a risk to the reputation of the business Pitt had diligently built.
Tenute’s recent counterclaim asserts that Pitt and his company are obstructing Jolie, Nouvel, and now Tenute from participating in the management of Château Miraval, withholding information on the winery’s operations and finances from these entities.
Tenute is seeking a jury trial for damages and alleges that Pitt and Mondo Bongo have yet to repay €20 million in loans initially provided by Jolie to support the winery.
