Chris Fenton Accused of Masquerading as ‘Player’ as DMG Lost Millions
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 additional data about Chris Fenton
In a counterclaim, DMG blasts Fenton as a disloyal employee who advanced his own interests in the company’s expense. The suit alleges that Fenton “cultivated his persona of a ‘player’” inside the industry even whilst losing millions of dollars.
“Fenton was terminated for his poor performance, gross mismanagement, and fraud around the companies he served,” the counterclaim states.
Fenton departed in February 2018, and alleges in his lawsuit that he was wrongfully cut out of your income from the company’s IPO. Fenton claims his put his reputation around the line to defend DMG from an SEC investigation into achievable bribery of Chinese officials.
He also says he lost faith in founders Dan Mintz, Wu Bing, and Peter Xiao, concluding that they had been engaged in risky borrowing against company stock to finance the acquire of a $30 million jet and also 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, which includes failing to perform sufficient due diligence or sustain suitable business records. “He either was unable or unwilling to carry out even one of the most simple 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 have been delayed, and that Fenton’s production partner, S2BN, allowed its licensing take care of Hasbro to expire. The shows were by no means developed.
“Fenton was driven by his own ego and desire for personal glorification within the public eye; in an effort to cultivate the persona of a ‘player,’ his priority was having a deal ‘done,’ instead of looking out for the most beneficial interest of DMG CC,” the suit alleges.
The suit also accuses Fenton of creating misstatements for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences so that you can get admission, and that he used his membership “for his personal personal obtain as opposed to for the benefit 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 accountable for placing together the deals for each ‘Iron Man 3’ and DMG’s ownership of Valiant (as well as lots of other thriving endeavors that DMG now brags about) is now on the getting end of a cross-complaint regarding his overall performance as a former DMG employee. As we’ve got mentioned ahead of, we are going to permit the details to speak for the truth about DMG’s actions, at the same time because the actions of our client.”
A DMG spokesperson shot back: “Once once again, Fenton is wanting to take credit for work he didn’t do. He made a mess of these deals, which other individuals had to clean up.”