DMG Entertainment has fired back against Chris Fenton, the former head of its motion picture group who filed a $30 million breach of contract suit in February. Get more information about Feeding the Dragon
Inside a counterclaim, DMG blasts Fenton as a disloyal employee who advanced his personal interests in the company’s expense. The suit alleges that Fenton “cultivated his persona of a ‘player'” inside the sector even though losing millions of dollars.
“Fenton was terminated for his poor functionality, gross mismanagement, and fraud on the companies he served,” the counterclaim states.
Fenton departed in February 2018, and alleges in his lawsuit that he was wrongfully cut out with the earnings from the company’s IPO. Fenton claims his place his reputation around the line to defend DMG from an SEC investigation into doable bribery of Chinese officials.
He also says he lost faith in founders Dan Mintz, Wu Bing, and Peter Xiao, concluding that they have been engaged in risky borrowing against company stock to finance the buy of a $30 million jet plus a $20 million mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif. He also alleges that the founders have run the company into the ground.
The counterclaim accuses Fenton of sloppy business practices, like failing to carry out sufficient due diligence or maintain correct business records. “He either was unable or unwilling to carry out even probably the most standard managerial tasks,” the suit alleges.
The suit also accuses Fenton of claiming credit for others’ work.
The suit states that Fenton, in 2016, expense the company millions in damages on a deal to produce live shows in China featuring the Transformers characters. DMG alleges that the shows had been delayed, and that Fenton’s production companion, S2BN, permitted its licensing take care of Hasbro to expire. The shows have been never ever made.
“Fenton was driven by his own ego and desire for personal glorification in the public eye; as a way to cultivate the persona of a ‘player,’ his priority was finding a deal ‘done,’ rather than looking out for the top interest of DMG CC,” the suit alleges.
The suit also accuses Fenton of making misstatements for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in order to acquire admission, and that he used his membership “for his own personal achieve as an alternative to for the advantage of DMG CC.”
The suit accuses Fenton of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and negligence, and seeks $30 million in damages.
Fenton’s attorney, John R. Baldivia, issued this response:
“We discover it fascinating that our client, who was responsible for placing together the deals for both ‘Iron Man 3’ and DMG’s ownership of Valiant (too as a lot of other effective endeavors that DMG now brags about) is now around the getting end of a cross-complaint concerning his performance as a former DMG employee. As we have stated before, we are going to enable the facts to speak towards the truth about DMG’s actions, at the same time because the actions of our client.”
A DMG spokesperson shot back: “Once again, Fenton is looking to take credit for work he didn’t do. He made a mess of those deals, which other individuals had to clean up.”